Frustrated with her inability to make the scheduled used book sales, Anjali Menon ’10, with the help of her brother, Ramakrishnan, grade 10, established an online marketplace called Bookshelf for students to buy and sell used books from their fellow classmates.
While at Harker, “I was unable to attend used book sales because of time/date conflicts,” Anjali Menon said, “but we feel like such conflicts should not restrict us from trading our books within the Harker community, since our classmates are most likely to buy our books and have the books we need in the first place.”
Bookshelf relies solely on students’ active participation. All names are anonymous and buyer-seller contacts are done through Bookshelf-generated e-mails. Still in its early stages, Bookshelf is only available to Harker students, but the Menons aim eventually to open the website to all students. “If Bookshelf successfully gains more traction within the Harker community,” Anjali Menon said, “then we might consider including more students, but one school at a time.”
Third grade students visited Mission San Juan Bautista Oct. 13 to get a view of American history outside of the classroom. During the all-day trip, students not only received a tour of the grounds, they also learned about rocks at Tops A Rock Shop and bought an afternoon treat at Margot’s Ice Cream Shop.
“All in all, this gave the students three trips in one,” said history teacher Heidi Gough. “History and historical perspective, science — the rock unit is coming soon in class — and math [with] a chance to use money knowledge in a real world setting.”
Students were challenged to calculate their own tax before purchasing souvenir rocks and ice cream. Before that, they learned about the significance of the mission and its grounds through firsthand experience.
A trip taken by third graders every year, the visit to Mission San Juan Batista offered a taste of a historical town. The students were enamored by how old the buildings looked.
“Many did not even realize all they were learning!” Gough said. “Isn’t that what it’s all about?”
After weeks of exchanging cards and learning more about each other, third graders finally met their big buddies at the official Eagle Buddies kickoff Oct. 6.
Balloons lined the walkways and, as sophomores filed through the gym to the field, third graders cheered and clapped, warmly welcoming the older students with grins and hugs. The buddies spent the morning playing games organized by the BEST staff – wringing out sponges, racing with their legs tied together and running around campus in a scavenger hunt.
“It was really cute to see a tall sophomore with a small third grader and their legs tied together, hobbling down the field,” said Carol Zink, upper school history teacher and one of the Eagle Buddies program coordinators. She described one sophomore picking up his Little Buddy to make the turnaround in the three-legged race and stressed how well everyone communicated with each other during the games.
“The Eagle Buddy meeting was fantastic!” said Jeffrey Draper, sophomore class dean. “It was so great to see the young third graders interacting with their old, tenth grade buddies, playing games together, talking about their interests, and seeing the sophomores take such great care in the way they worked with their Little Buddies.”
Sarah Leonard, K-3 division head, was impressed by how quickly the new relationships unfolded. “For most, it was instantaneous,” she said. “The buddies clicked and new friendships were born.”
Inspired by Butch Keller, upper school head, the Eagle Buddies program aims to increase cross-campus connections and integrate the Harker community in a new tradition. Tenth graders and third graders were paired up for a three-year-long friendship program that will last until their respective graduations in 2014.
“We are a K-12 school and watching the interaction that day at Bucknall, all those things came true,” Keller recapped.
The buddies’ next opportunity to hang out will be during the Nov. 22 homecoming football game. Pizza will be served at the tailgate and buddies can watch the contest together. The game will also be a chance for buddy parents to meet each other. In January, buddies will participate in the lower school’s Pajama Day fundraiser and, come spring, Little Buddies will be taking a trip to the upper school campus for the annual spring spirit rally. In between, sophomores will be inviting their Little Buddies to performances and sports games and continuing to write letters.
“It is my hope that this is the beginning of a long, time-honored tradition,” Leonard said. “The benefits to young and old alike in regards to encouraging communication, promoting responsibility and building and managing relationships cannot be underestimated.”
Three dozen fourth graders traveled across the hall to grade 1 classrooms as part of a traveling storyteller project for English teacher Colin Goodwin’s class.
“The project is based on traditional Japanese storytelling – kamishibai,” said Goodwin. “Before TV took over, there were kamishibai storytellers in Japan who would show up at a park, gather some children around them and tell the kids folk tales. To make the tales more interesting, the kamishibai tellers used poster boards to illustrate scenes from the stories. When they were done telling the stories, they would sell the kids Japanese sweets,” he added.
The student kamishibai told folk tales like “Momotaro (Peach Boy),” “Urashima,” “The Fisher Lad” and “The Tongue-Cut Sparrow.”“They all prepared kamishibai posters and, instead of selling the first graders candy, they gave them Japanese mocha,” said Goodwin.
On Oct. 13, the Class of 2015 participated in the annual freshman service day. In their advisory groups, they went to various sites including the Humane Society, Elkus Ranch, Eco Magic and the San Jose Family Shelter.
Serving as an introduction to community service, the daylong event “is also a nice way to go out with advisories and bond outside of school,” said Kerry Enzensperger, director of upper school community service.
Raghav Sehtia is stepping up to citizenship in a big way. In early September, the Harker sophomore was named an intern in California State Assembly Member Jim Beall’s office. In addition, he has become a member of the San Jose Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC). Sehtia works in Beall’s office once a week and is one of the youngest people there; most of the other interns are college undergraduates. Along with routine front office duties, Sehtia helps with case research on citizen complaints as well as issues regarding public services like the DMV or the Megan’s Law database. He also assists in outreach for Cal grants plus state and federal funding for students for college. To publicize the application process for such aid, Sehtia is producing a newsletter article as well as seeking other means of spreading the word.
As a member of the BPAC, Sehtia will help the committee advise the city council and other policy makers on how to best accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians throughout San Jose. He has been appointed to a two-year term and will meet with other members approximately once a month.
Boot week at Harker precedes the annual grade 6 trip to Yosemite. During this time, the students are required to wear their hiking boots to ensure the footwear is ready for the arduous activity facing them. The sixth graders will meet up with a group of students from Tamagawa Gakuen School in Tokyo with whom they have been corresponding, sometimes for years, via e-mail and video conferences.
Dancers, singers and musicians will again help celebrate “Light Up the Night” at Santana Row, a long-time Harker Fashion Show sponsor. Performers will gather Tues., Nov. 16 from 6-6:30 p.m. for the annual tree lighting, which this year is being directed by our own Laura Lang-Ree, director of performing arts. Harker groups Dance Fusion, US Jazz Band and Downbeat will all be performing prior to the tree lighting on the green outside Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant. The entire event runs from 3-9 p.m. More details are available at http://www.santanarow.com/events/calendar/2010/11/ (yes, the photo on their site is Harker’s Dance Fusion at last year’s performance!).
Rohan Chandra, grade 10, is one of 10 first place national winners of the Scholastic BE BIG in Your Community contest, in which people submitted ideas to help improve their communities. Chandra will receive a $2,500 grant to help his idea come to life. His plan is to make and distribute “Earthquake Kits” to the senior citizens in his area, which runs an especially high risk of experiencing a major earthquake.
These kits would contain essentials such as water, a flashlight, first-aid supplies, medicine and non-perishable foods. Because Chandra’s community is very ethnically diverse, the kits would also come with instructions in various languages such as Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu and Tagalog, so that more people will be able to clearly and quickly understand important information in the event of an earthquake-related emergency. The contest organizers provide the structure for winners to complete their proposals. Chandra’s was one of nearly 1,000 entries; more than 25,000 community members of all ages submitted for the contest: one top-10 winner was 55.
Jo Ann Bibb, a wellness clinician at the Bon Secour Hospital’s Mind Body Institute in Richmond, Va., spoke at Nichols Auditorium on Oct. 4 and 6 about various ways to reduce stress and live a healthier life.
At the Oct. 4 appearance, Bibb, who is the mother of upper school math teacher Jane Keller, who organized the events, spoke to grade 11 parents on how stress can impact one’s mind, body and character, and also offered tips on stress reduction. Bibb spoke to the juniors on Oct. 6 on the same topics.
“Stress is a perceived situation where you feel you have no control,” Bibb explained to the students. “In those moments, your body freezes and the adrenaline rushes and you’re not much different from the caveman who was running away from the tiger.”
Bibb then showed the students a “simple but profound exercise” that could reduce stress levels and help students function more productively. The exercise involved closing one’s eyes and finding sensation in the hands, feet, back and seat areas, and then focusing on breathing.
“Very often, you’re in your head trying to figure out what to do, where the safest place, most reasonable place to be is calm in your body, but you just can’t quite find it,” Bibb said.
Going through this exercise for just 10 minutes a day can keep students from becoming too wrapped up in stressful situations, thus rendering them more able to face them.
Thorough practice of the exercise will also make them more able to recall the sensations so that they can reduce stress more quickly and easily.
“That little stockpile of time … goes through your day,” Bibb said. “You have a much more easeful use of your brain. Things are more easily accessed.”