Joe Connolly, LS dean of students, is a sought-after speaker of family topics and widely known for his expertise and powerful speaking on parenting teens and young children. This summer, he brought his expertise to Harker in a special class. Connolly, author and creator of “3 STEPS to Parenting Teens” and the “One Minute Rule,” is one of the founders of Good Parents, Inc.. In his class this summer, he shared his knowledge with Harker and non-Harker families in two week-long evening workshops titled “Tools for Effective Parenting in the 21st Century” – one for Gr. 1-4 parents and one for Gr. 5-8 parents.
Parents enjoyed the class and were thankful for the tips. Tricia Swanson, parent of Megan, Gr. 4, and Stephanie, Gr. 3, reported, “(Husband) Michael and I very much enjoyed the parenting class this summer. We took away some good ideas. Joe has a lot of great information.”
Nina Smith, parent of Grant, K, said, “I am always interested in parenting classes and the psychology of kids. This class was very interesting and gave me some new ideas and helpful tips that I have been able to practice; and they work!”
Smith added, “Mr. Connolly kept the class interesting and funny. I think a good sense of humor in dealing with kids is a must!” Connolly included information on how to understand one’s children better, to communicate based on your child’s developmental level, and provided tools and skills to help with everyday parenting. This is the first year Connolly has offered his classes at Harker, and by all accounts, they were a success. Harker may offer similar classes in the fall, so watch for more news!
This summer, Harker math students took on a writing project. Teacher Margaret Harris’ pre-algebra class wrote letters to the publisher of their textbook regarding some errors and received a response from the publisher thanking them.
In their letters, the students carefully explained which problems contained errors by describing the mathematical principles involved. According to Harris, “The students were careful to be polite and considerate as they, too, understand mistakes.”
Harris became aware of the errors when students questioned the solutions. “Believing in my students, I checked out the questions myself and the students were correct. I encouraged them to write their corrections to the publisher,” she added.
Katherine Tang, Gr. 6, even went so far in her letter as to explain how she thought the publisher achieved the incorrect answer. “On the answer key you got the wrong answer because I think you forgot to subtract 1s2 from 8s2.” She said she felt like “I was a mathematician. I felt respected and learned a lot.”
Tom Hamilton, supervising editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, replied in an e-mail to Kelly Espinosa, director of summer programs. “I wanted to express our appreciation to Ms. Harris and the students for bringing these errors to our attention. Both errors will be corrected in the next printing of the book. We appreciate the efforts of all the teachers and students who help us achieve this goal (of providing mathematically accurate materials).”
Anika Krishnan, Gr. 7, said that writing the letters was a good idea so “other people would not get stuck on the same problems.” Arman Mortasavi, Gr. 7, agreed, and added, “I felt closer to the math world because I helped to make the changes.” Annika Jackson, Gr. 7, didn’t expect a response, but thought they would fix the mistakes. Huck Vaughan, Gr. 7, said he was surprised that the publishers didn’t send an automatic e-mail response. “I helped out the pros!” Vaughan exclaimed.
Although these students enjoyed doing tessellations, meeting new people and learning new math concepts, this experience was definitely not one they expected to occur in a summer math class. As Leela Amladi, Gr. 6, explained, “I didn’t expect it to be such a big deal, I just didn’t want others to be stuck on those problems. It’s like we corrected Grand Masters!”
Harker recently received a certificate from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), a nonprofit organization committed to cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings, signifying that Nichols Hall has received a Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification.
Harker is the first school in Santa Clara County to achieve a gold ranking. Dan Geiger, executive director of the USGBC’s Northern California chapter, visited Harker Aug. 13 to deliver the certificate and congratulate those involved in its achievement.
Nichols Hall, Harker’s new science and technology center, opened in August 2008, and embodies the school’s long-held commitment to environmental issues, which influenced every decision in the construction. Originally expected to earn the Silver level of certification, Harker students did the work that pushed the building to Gold status, noted Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facilities manager.
He noted that recognition of the multiple displays on green living and green building construction developed by students in teacher Jeff Sutton’s class for the 2009 Harker Research Symposium were key to gaining the Gold rating. “The USGBC recognized these displays as ongoing educational material developed by the students and that gave us the final point needed to place us in the Gold category,” said Bassoni.
According to the USGBC Web site, “LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality.”
There are a few other schools around the Bay Area with LEED-certified buildings, including Windrush School in El Cerrito, whose Platinum-rated library opened in 2008; Marin County Day School in Corte Madera has a Gold rating for its Step 1 project; and Nueva School in Hillsborough, San Mateo County, opened a Gold-rated learning complex in 2007. The LEED certification system, created by the USGBC, scores buildings in multiple categories and the total number of points determines level of certification: 40 or more points for Certified, 50 or more for Silver, 60 or more for Gold and 80 or more for Platinum.
Criteria for certification include the sustainability of the building site, how efficiently the building manages water, how it uses energy, its indoor air quality and its proximity to pre-existing infrastructure and public transit. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/YhRUk
Anand Natarajan, 2009 Harker graduate, earned a gold medal in Mexico at the 2009 International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) in mid-July. The five-person U.S team earned four golds and a silver, tying for second with India and Korea, and coming in behind the Chinese team, which earned five gold medals.
In May, when selected as one of the 19 final qualifiers for the Olympiad team, Natarajan (on far left in the team photo) was forced to choose between attending the team’s preparation camp and his own graduation, and chose the preparation camp. “It was a tough call to skip graduation, but I think it was worth it,” he said. “I really enjoyed my experience with the physics Olympiad, and I think it’s helped me realize that physics is the subject I’m most passionate about.”
Over 300 students from about 70 countries participated. Problems included questions on tidal friction in the Earth-Moon system, laser cooling and determining the minimum radius for a stable main sequence star.
“The toughest part of the examination was the first question on the experimental portion,” said Natarajan. “It was necessary to get a really good alignment of all the optical components we were using to be able to get good measurements and that took a lot of time. Also, the official IPhO-supplied calculator was somewhat difficult to use, which really slowed me down throughout the exam.”
Tidal friction aside, “The most fun thing about the competition was probably just the experience of being with other young people who share my interest in physics,” said Natarajan. “I also really enjoyed some of the excursions to the Mayan archeological sites that the Mexican organizers planned for us.”
Natarajan has one other activity before he starts at Stanford in the fall: three days after he returned from Mexico he left for the Linguistics Olympiad in Wrocław, Poland, held July 26-31.
Alumnae Jamie Trinh ’05, Melissa Chen ’08, Victoria Duong ’04, Tiffany Liou ’08, Jessica Liu ’04, Jacinda Mein ’04, Natasha Sarin ’07, Kavita Shah ’07, Elyse Trinh ’07 and Rachel Yuan ’08 will be participating in a Relay For Life event on August 15 and 16 at Palo Alto High School to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
The team has christened itself “Team Near,” in honor of AP U.S. History teacher John Near, a 30-year veteran of The Harker School and cancer patient who is currently recovering after suffering a bacterial infection in May that required surgery.
Arjun Naskar ’05 was awarded the 2009 Karl Taylor Compton prize at MIT.
The award was presented in May by the president of MIT, Susan Hockfield. The Compton Prizes are given in memory of Dr. Karl Taylor Compton, president of MIT from 1930-1949, and chairman of the corporation, 1949-1954. They are the highest awards presented by the institute to students and student organizations in recognition of excellent achievements in citizenship and devotion to the welfare of MIT. The awards reflect the winners’ outstanding contributions to the MIT community as a whole, sustained over a significant number of years. “We have Harker to thank for getting Arjun off to a great start,” said mother Aloka Naskar.
This past spring Harker hosted a series of receptions in Asia for Harker’s English Language Institute (ELI) and to reconnect with several alumni now residing there. The unique ELI program specializes in preparing international students for success at the nation’s premier boarding schools and English-speaking international schools.
“Harker has an outstanding reputation worldwide for this unique program,” said Joe Rosenthal, Harker’s executive director of advancement, who organizes the receptions each year and who directed Harker’s elementary boarding program for many years. “It is wonderful that so many of our former boarding students and their families are able to recommend their relatives, friends and business associates to our ELI summer program.”
In addition to recruiting students for the ELI program, Rosenthal visited with many boarding alumni during the trip. In Korea, a group of alumni gathered at the Outback Steak House on a Friday night before the ELI reception on Saturday, where Alex Lee ’97 agreed to head up the Korean alumni group. It was very impressive to have so many alumni attend the recruiting reception as well. The prospective families were impressed when Danny Yoo MS ’00, who was class president at Phillips Exeter, spoke about how Harker prepared him for his high school and his studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s prestigious school of business. “We had alumni who also attended Harker’s upper school, Choate Rosemary Hall, Woodside Priory, Stoney Brook and Mercersburg on hand to validate how well Harker prepares students for success at high school and beyond,” noted Rosenthal. Special thanks to Young Lee ’93 who once again served as the translator for our program and to the family of Chris ’03 and Harry MS ’08 Kim for hosting Harker’s visit in Korea.
Rosenthal then traveled to Beijing, where Harker parents Lucy Li and Allan Zhang (Bryan Zhang, K), hosted a very successful reception. Li and Zhang were proud to recommend Harker to the large crowd at the event. After the short trip to Beijing, Rosenthal headed to Shanghai to enjoy dinner with some parents of alumni, which was followed by another well-attended reception at the Renaissance Hotel. Then it was off to Hong Kong where boarding alumni Toku Chen ’92 and his wife, Candy, assisted him with the reception there. Chen also agreed to lead the effort in creating a Harker alumni group in Hong Kong.
The next ELI reception took place in Taipei, Taiwan, where alumni parents Ting and Angela Herh (Stephanie ’08) hosted the event, as they had done for past ELI programs. “In addition to having the alumni receptions and the recruiting receptions, it was a wonderful opportunity to visit with and to thank and show the progress that has been made from several of our major benefactors to our Capital Campaign,” Rosenthal said. Rosenthal was also impressed by the people in Taiwan who recognized the Harker name and were familiar with its international reputation. “We had three different families that came up to us while we were waiting for our guests to arrive, who said, ‘My goodness! The Harker School! We know all about them!’” he recalled.
In Kyoto, Japan, Rosenthal met a family from Kobe who planned to send all four of their children to the ELI program for the summer. The trip concluded in Tokyo, where Rosenthal met with Keiichi Watase, head of the lower school at Harker’s sister-school Tamagawa Gakuen, who has served as Harker’s official translator for the past decade. Harker grandparent Zenichi Ogawa (Kei MS ’03) kindly hosted the final reception in Tokyo, which Rosenthal said was “unbelievably over-subscribed.” About 70 people attended the reception in a room set up to serve 30, Rosenthal estimated. Rosenthal said the three week-long trip resulted in an impressive 103 serious inquiries from families about the ELI program.
“It brings me great joy to visit with so many of our international alumni,” Rosenthal said. “It seems like only yesterday when these wonderful Harker students were 12 and 13 years old, living in our dorm. I am so proud to see them all grown up and leading successful and happy lives.”
AP Psychology teacher Naomi Schatz sends more of her regards from Australia. Read on for more of her experiences as an exchange teacher Down Under!
June 2, 2009:
“I finally got to do some teaching today! First off, spent some time doing some sport psychology with SSC’s [Saint Stephen’s College] Year 9 ‘Rugby Academy’ boys. As you can imagine, I know basically nothing about rugby, unless you count last year when Kevin [Williamson] and I took the kids to see a Rugby League game in Brisbane. I did learn a bit more on this past Friday when I watched the SSC kids play Rugby Union. For some reason I don’t understand the difference between rugby “League” versus “Union” – not to mention the Australian Football League (AFL) – as all three are very different sports!
“Anyway, the sport psych stuff went really well, in that we talked about performance anxiety, overcoming adversity, fear of injury, goal setting, confidence and self-talk. Hopefully, they also learned how to apply these same principles and strategies from sport into the classroom. Mick, the Rugby coach/teacher, seemed pleased with how the conversation went, so he is planning for me to do more of that during my stay with some of the older athletes, too.
“Later on, I spent some time with the Year 8 kids talking about bullying, sexting, peer pressure and anxiety. Amazing, isn’t it, that half a world away that the kids are still kids! That session, too, went well, and I am looking forward to following up with some of the students later on during my stay. Unfortunately, the older students (equivalent to our juniors/seniors) are all testing this week, so I am not going to have much time with them in the classrooms, although I am offering a ‘one-off’ session or two on managing stress/anxiety.”
June 12, 2009:
“I’ve had another busy week at [SSC]. Got a chance to watch the McDonald’s Cup Rugby Tournament with the MS boys. Major bummer was that Jed Dorrington, the son of the headmaster, got a concussion with his grade 7 team and then spent the afternoon in the hospital! On a brighter note, I did get to do some more sport psych work with the older rugby academy boys, as well as some test anxiety, stress and time management work with the upperclassmen. Very cool. I’ve enjoyed seeing some of the students I met last summer, as well as the chance to meet some new kids.
“Interestingly, their whole upper school essentially shuts down Friday afternoon, and the kids all load up on buses to go play sports at neighboring schools. This Friday, I kept score for the boys’ volleyball team (they won), and then watched some girls’ netball (similar to basketball, sort of), boys’ hockey and soccer, and then my new favorite sport, rugby (they lost). No concussions, but somehow a whole team managed to miss the buses home, so that was kind of funny! Speaking of sports, many kids here take a ‘sports tour’ during the the last week of school and into vacation, traveling to Melbourne and Sydney for some sightseeing and games. Good times.
“Highlight for me this week was watching their dance class! Hilarious! Some students really get into it. Others, well, not so much! On a more cultural note, I did get to join a school trip to hear the Tokyo string quartet play Wednesday night up in Brisbane – awesome! (Beethoven, Haydn & Mendelssohn for those who are interested).”
Tennis in the MS has grown in confidence and stature, overcoming opponent after opponent on their way to winning two league championships – the WBAL (West Bay Athletic League) and the MTP (Mid-Peninsula Tennis Patrons). Building a winning team has been a challenging task for head coach KV Ganesh and assistant coach Cyrus Castillo, but one that they have taken on every bit of the way.
“Middle school tennis is about a sport where a lot of individual talent exists and the focus is to get these individuals to play in a team environment,” says Ganesh. Tryouts spanned several days. “This year we had 72 middle school boys and girls tryout for the 25 spots in the team,” says Ganesh, “and the team has 18 players who have a USTA ranking, the most we have seen all these years.” This year’s team was Niharika Bedekar, Pranav Bheda, Neel Bhoopalam, Josh Bollar, Jenny Chen, Simar Mangat, Nikhil Panu, Piyush Prasad, Chau Nguyen, Indica Sur, Justin Yang, all Gr. 8; Vikas Bhetanabhotla, Katia Mironova, Avinash Nayak, Sahithya Prakash, Ariana Shulma, all Gr. 7; and Neel Bedekar, Vikram Chari, Deepa Dhore, John Dobrota, Srivinay Irrinki, Ethan Ma, Ryan Palmer, Sriram Somasundaram, Vedant Thyagaraj, all Gr. 6.
Although the season started with a narrow defeat, Harker quickly settled down into a rhythm and remained undefeated for the rest of the regular season in both leagues. Having qualified to play in the Silver Division for the WBAL, the Eagles went on to claim the WBAL championships with two more victories in that league.
In the 20-year history of the MTP League, Harker’s best achievement has been as a “runner-up” in 2007. This time around the Eagles were more determined than ever to have their name on that championship trophy. They advanced through each round in the face of ever-growing competition. On May 26 they posted a convincing 7-2 victory over Bret Harte, whom they had lost to in the finals just a couple of years ago. The mood in the Eagles camp was ecstatic – they enjoyed every bit of ending the season on this high note!
The coaches had little difficulty in naming Chen as the Most Valuable Player. Having been a part of the singles quartet for all three years, she was there against every one of Harker’s opponents this season. Chari was undefeated this season and walked away with the Eagles Award. Nayak received the Coaches’ Award for his inspirational display of team spirit on and off court. He helped keep the team together through tough times.
Coach Ganesh extended his thanks to Harker’s administration and support staff for providing the facilities and transportation to the team. He hastened to add, “I particularly want to thank all the parents of the team for the support they provided and the sacrifices they made to help our team with their achievements during this season of two championships!”
The Bay Area Showcase Chorus, of which MS French teacher Carol Parris is a member, recently won the national Forever Plaid Online Video Contest. The contest, part of a commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Off-Broadway musical “Forever Plaid,” gave singing groups nationwide the chance to be featured during the Forever Plaid 20th Anniversary Special on July 9 at 8 p.m., which will be broadcast to 375 movie theaters across the country, including two theaters in the San Jose area: CineArts Santana Row 6 and AMC Eastridge Mall 15. The group’s performance will also be included as a special feature in the “Forever Plaid” DVD. More info about Bay Area Showcase Chorus (and a video of the performance that won them the contest) can be found at their Web site.