Last week, grade 6 went on its yearly coastal exploration, visiting Elkhorn Slough at Monterey Bay and Redwood Glen in the Santa Cruz Mountains. To prepare for the ropes courses at Redwood Glen, students spent Oct. 23 at Harker undergoing an important safety training program. The next day, they departed in three groups. At Elkhorn Slough, students went kayaking along the 7-mile stretch of water, viewing wildlife such as otters, jellyfish and sea lions. Their time at Redwood Glen was spent learning about the ecology and geology of the area, and navigating its rope courses through cooperation and teamwork. At night, the students went on an astronomy hike. “All these activities combined with the energy supplied by the students filled the day to overflowing,” said middle school division head Cindy Ellis, who accompanied the students.
The kayaking activity, she later said, “has been the best we have ever encountered at Elkhorn Slough. The perfectly blue skies and the abundant wildlife has amazed even the most seasoned kayak veterans among the faculty.”
The boys water polo team ended its season with a 6-12 loss to Gunn and a 4-9 loss to Lynbrook in the SCVAL Tournament last week.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo team finished its season with a third place finish at the SCVAL Tournament last week. The Eagles beat Santa Clara 2-1 on a last second goal from Abigail Wisdom, grade 11. After a close 2-4 loss to Wilcox, the girls defeated Monta Vista 7-1 behind two goals from Cas Ruedy, grade 10. Coach Allie Lamb said, “This has been one of the most successful seasons for Harker girls water polo in several years.”
Football
Finishing off the best regular season in Harker history, the football team went to 9-0 after a 42-7 thrashing of Irvington High last Saturday. It was a pair of running backs leading the way as Aaron Smith, grade 11, ran for 176 yards and two TDs, while Marcus Tymous, grade 11, ran for 103 yards and two TDs. The Eagles take a week off before finding out where they fall in the NCS playoff bracket, which starts on Nov. 10.
Girls Golf
The girls golf team continues to roll as it finished second at the WBAL tournament last week. Katherine Zhu, grade 12, once again led the Eagles, as she shot a 3-under-par 67. Zhu is the four-time league champion, the only person, male or female, to accomplish that task in league history. The girls travel to Laguna Seca early Monday to compete at the CCS Championships.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team ended its regular season with a 4-3 win over Sacred Heart Prep and a 0-7 loss to Menlo. This week, the Eagles travel to Menlo for the CCS qualifiers.
Girls Volleyball
The girls volleyball team ended its season last week with a four-game loss to Mercy San Francisco on Senior Night and a 3-0 loss to Menlo later in the week.
Cross Country
This Friday, the cross country team competes at the WBAL Championship at Crystal Springs Cross Country Park.
Music teacher Dave Hart invited Bay Area woodwind ensemble Frequency 49 to his middle school classroom on Thursday to show his students how chamber music is performed by professional musicians. The students, who had been creating chamber music compositions in class, watched as the members of the sextet – pianist Margaret Halbig, French horn player (and Hart’s wife) Leslie Hart, bassoonist Patrick Johnson-Whitty, oboist Adrienne Malley, clarinetist Jeannie Psomas and flautist Katrina Walter – demonstrated the various aspects and techniques of their respective instruments, as well as how the group’s unique configuration allows for flexibility in the sounds they can create. The students were then delighted to hear Frequency 49 perform a rendition of a piece by Francis Poulenc. More info about the group can be found at its website, as well as on Facebook and Instagram!
Earlier this week, 79 students competed in six events in the middle school’s first intramural speech and debate tournament of the year. About 50 volunteer judges, including parents, upper school students and middle school teachers, were critical to the event’s success. “Everyone had a great time and learned a bunch in preparation for future tournaments with Harker,” said Christopher Thiele, middle school speech and debate teacher. “I want to congratulate the winners accordingly.”
Policy Debate
First place (tie): Mir Bahri, grade 7, and Saanvi Arora, grade 8
Congress
First place: Dhruv Saoji, grade 8
Speech (Impromptu)
First place: Zubin Khera, grade 7
Lincoln-Douglas
First place: Harsh Deep, grade 8
Lincoln-Douglas Top Speakers
First place: Brian Chen, grade 7
Public Forum
First place: Rohan Thakur and Rohan Rashingkar, both grade 8
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle school’s division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellis’ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle school’s division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellis’ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
After a Harker career spanning 40 years, Cindy Ellis, middle school division head, announced that she will retire at the end of the 2017-18 school year.
Ellis’ time at Harker included working as a houseparent for the school’s boarding program (which closed in 2002), teaching algebra and pre-algebra at the middle school, and serving as chair to the K-8 math department. She also developed Harker’s math lab program and wrote curricula for elementary grades for educational publishers. In 2000, her extensive work earned her the Edyth May Sliffe Award for Distinguished Mathematics Teaching in Middle School, a national honor.
Since 2004, Ellis has been the middle school’s division head, a position she has filled with dedication, vision and kindness. An immensely grateful Harker community looks forward to sharing Ellis’ final year with her, and wishes her all the best in her retirement.
Harker chess players had a very successful weekend at the U.S. National Game/30 and Game/60 Championships in Santa Clara. In the main Game/60 event (where games are set for a maximum length of 60 minutes), Omya Vidyarthi, grade 2, claimed first place in the 1200-1399 rating category, winning all four rounds.
Harker students also competed in a scholastic side event held that same weekend, in which Kyle Chang, grade 7, placed first in the Game/60 competition’s 400-599 category, and fourth grader Mihir Kotabgi earned a respectable seventh in the 800-999 category. Together with the points earned by seventh grader Max Pflaging, Harker was the first-place Under 1000 team with a total score of 8.5.
In the Game/30 scholastic event, where games are played with a 30-minute time limit, Kotbagi’s second-place performance in the 800-999 category and the points earned by Saanvi Bhargava, grade 5, in the 400-599 category helped put Harker in a solid fifth place in the school team standing.
Over a period of three weeks in September, middle school students attended a series of talks by Erika Leonard, the California program director for the international nonprofit organization KidPower. For the past 27 years, Leonard said, KidPower has been “teaching social safety skills to people of all ages, abilities and identities.”
Topics of the talks included setting boundaries, online bullying, mindfulness about online activity (for example, sharing photos of friends without his or her permission), and techniques for identifying and dealing with hurtful words and phrases.
Though the subject matter varied with each grade, Leonard said the lessons learned could be applied to all. “Each of those groups focuses on some core skills that are actually the same at each grade level,” she said. “So for example, if you were to watch the sixth grade sessions, seventh grade sessions and the eighth grade sessions, you would notice that every student practiced setting boundaries, every student practiced some form of getting help.”
Since her first visit to Harker in 2012, Leonard has taken notice of Harker’s proactive expansion of the KidPower workshops to more grade levels. Lower school workshops began last school year, and this year grade 8 students attended the sessions for the first time. Leonard plans to return to Harker in January to give talks to each of the lower school grade levels.
“Harker is really taking the impressive lead of making safety a priority by setting up sessions at different grade levels,” Leonard said. KidPower has subsequently taken measures to reinforce what students learn while keeping the sessions fresh and up-to-date.
“There is nothing essentially in the sixth grade class that wouldn’t be valuable for the eighth graders. There’s nothing in the seventh grade class that the sixth graders couldn’t also do,” said Leonard. “It’s just that by planning it this way, they get a broader experience reinforcing the same concepts using new examples over time.”
KidPower also has offered to provide professional development opportunities for Harker faculty and staff, who hope to incorporate these concepts into their everyday work.
“Somebody doing something as simple as saying, ‘thank you for speaking up,’ or ‘let’s act aware, we’re out in public,’ somebody doing something that simple is actually reinforcing safety,” Leonard said. “You could have lots of teachers doing those little things. They’re like drops of water that make a big difference.”
Last week, Nidhya Shivakumar, grade 7, was named one of the top 300 students nationwide from the 2,499 middle school students nominated for this year’s Broadcom MASTERS science competition. Her project, titled “Halophytes: A Potential Solution for the Remediation of Soil in Saline Wastelands,” was selected by a panel of science and engineering professionals, who evaluated projects based on originality, creativity, analysis of data and other criteria.
If named one the 30 national finalists, Shivakumar will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for the final stage of the competition in October, where more than $100,000 in awards will be distributed. Best of luck!