Spirit Week, that rite of spring and the bridge between spring break and Memorial Day, arrived after a week of wet weather, and students were ready to show their spirit! Each day had a special free dress-up theme as well as an activity for the advisories or Houses to compete in. The overall winning advisory – not available at press time – received an extra-abundant Black Ford (this is a custom-painted pedal car stuffed with goodies that resides in the winning advisory’s homeroom). Monday was sports day (no lacrosse sticks allowed), Tuesday was clashing clothes and crazy hair day, Wednesday was pajama day, Thursday was dress for the decade and Friday was rock star day. In keeping with the rock star theme, Friday culminated with a magnificent lip sync contest that got the whole school laughing!
Teacher Michael Schmidt was pleased but not surprised when approached by students who wanted to do a good deed.
“An amazing group of students came to me at the beginning of the year and asked if there was some way they could help another school,” said Schmidt. “They had a year’s worth of experience doing it as fifth graders when they and Miss (Shelby) Guarino raised funds for a school in Uganda. This year, they asked me to help them create a fundraiser for our sister school in Costa Rica, Cloud Forest School.
Jeremy Binkley, Jeton Gutierrez-Bujari, Allison Kerkhoff, Glenn Reddy and Alex Thomas, all Gr. 6, and Zina Jawadi, Gr. 7, call themselves Peace 2 Peace and each of them made contributions in their own way, Schmidt noted. “But most importantly they showed the kind, giving nature that makes me proud to be a teacher here at Harker.
“They asked their student body to offer donations of unwanted items that Peace 2 Peace could sell at a garage sale,” Schmidt said. The group made collection containers and placed them around campus. “Every day, for over three months, the kids would gather the items that had accumulated in the bins and store them in my room. Due to some amazing donations from students, faculty and parents, Peace 2 Peace was able to raise $1,200 for Cloud Forest School.”
The benefits of the collection go beyond the money raised, though. “I love seeing such generosity extended towards our sister schools!” said Jennifer Abraham, director of global education. The students found the process rewarding. “You can’t replace the feeling of working together with your friends and teachers for a special cause,” said Gutierrez-Bujari. Binkley added, “It might have been a lot of work, but it was a lot of fun too.”
A group of Gr. 7 boys, Andrew Zhu, Kevin Moss, Darian Edvalson, Nikhil Dilip and Adarsh Battu, competed in the Department of Energy Regional Science Bowl Competition at the National Hispanic University in early March. The team, organized by Harker parent Ian Edvalson, met every other weekend throughout fall to practice science questions – and to play! Many other teams practice twice a week, and, “that they were able to win third place with such relatively little practice is testament to the outstanding preparation students receive in our middle school science program!” said US Spanish teacher and mom Diana Moss. “Kudos to Ian Edvalson!”
For the second time, the Harker Gr. 3 team, made up of the highest six scorers for the grade level, is a regional winner in the annual Continental Mathematics League contest. Our region includes students from schools in 15 states and 12 countries. A record three students earned scores of 17 out of a possible 18 in the contest this year to push the team to the top with a total score of 103 out of a possible 108. “Worldwide, our total score was in the top three percent of the 481 schools that participated in the contest,” said Stephanie Woolsey, Gr. 3 math teacher and contest advisor.
The test began after the winter break when all students in Gr. 3 math classes began completing a monthly math contest of six questions, earning one point per question. Griffin Ellis and Rishi Iyer, and Rose Guan, who is in Gr. 2 but is taking Gr. 3 math, all earned the almost-perfect scores this year. Each student earned a medal for his or her performance. In addition to the top three scoring students, two others, Adrian Chu and Rajiv Movva, earned total scores of 16, and earned a certificate of recognition. Amy Dunphy, Kaitlin Hsu, Anooshree Sengupta, Sahana Srinivasan and Justin Su were also strong competitors, and earned a total of 15 points each. “This is a difficult problem-solving contest in which students must read carefully and use their logical thinking and reasoning skills, with no rehearsal ahead of time,” reported Woolsey.
“We have participated in this contest for at least five years, and only twice have we had students earn scores of 18. Having three students earn 17 points is impressive!” Woolsey said. Harker also had a record number of students earning scores of six on at least one contest this year, with fifteen different students, or 15 percent of the entire third grade, earning a perfect score on at least one contest. Congratulations to all the students for attempting these problems!
A select group of Harker athletes gathered in mid-April to celebrate their step up to college athletics as Kristina Bither signed her papers to compete in volleyball for Villanova University. Joining Bither were four others who have already committed: Andrew Chin, swimming at the University of Pennsylvania; Sabrina Paseman, diving at Cornell; Tara Panu, tennis at Pepperdine; and Ankita Shah, gymnastics at UC Berkeley.
Harker welcomed a group of thirteen high school students and their chaperones from Fribourg, Switzerland’s College de Gambach during the week of April 6. The teens, who lived with Harker student host families, caught a glimpse of Harker life and saw some signature California landmarks along the way.
The visitors spent a good portion of the week observing classes with their buddies, including a Shakespeare class where students participated in acting exercises by passing a bean bag to one another.
Their week also included a couple of special field trips. Students were treated to a tour of the Google campus in Mountain View and got to visit the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium, in addition to getting an up-close look at the Pacific Ocean.
An appearance at the April 10 Multicultural Assembly and a farewell party in the Edge put the finishing touches on a memory-filled trip.
Merci beaucoup to all the host families who supported our guests during their visit:
Gr. 9: Shivani Bigler, Neda Ghaffarian, Neha Kumar, Daniela Lapidous, Jay Reddy and Shreya Indukuri
Gr. 10: Michael Patland, Jason Young, Michelle Vu, Amanda King and Margaux Nielsen.
Ice skating came to Harker in late March to the delight of young and old. About 100 US students hit the rink and LS students came over for some fun, too. “There were tons of third graders at the upper school enjoying the rink before the high school kids had their social,” said teacher Elise Schwartz. “I sent out an email to all my classes and met up with several of my third graders at the rink. We had a blast skating together – the kids were really cute!”
The 2008 edition of enlight’ning continues to rack up awards. In late March, the literature magazine beat out two others for the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s (CSPA) Gold Crown Award. This is the second year in a row the magazine has won the top award. Among other specific compliments paid the issue, the CSPA noted in its CD-ROM, “2009 Crown Winners,” the following enlight’ning strengths: “From cover to cover, staff branded this publication an exceptional literary journal, visually professional in appearance, format, use of color and illustration throughout. Purposeful choice of color palette and use of white space further distinguish this publication. The clean lines of this publication exemplify the fact that each visual and written piece was tightly edited. There is an acute attention to detail in the editorial process.”
Of one page in particular, CSPA reviewers wrote: “The stark quality of the poem ‘Algebra’ is paired with the proportional design of ‘Quilt Squares’ – two works of art that do more than share space. Together, they provide a unique perspective.”
“Needless to say we are really proud!” said teacher Stacie Newman, who, along with Michael Schmidt, advises the staff. “We owe a great debt to all the middle school students whose work was offered for the magazine; their contributions were outstanding, and without them we couldn’t create a winning publication!” she added.
A group of Gr. 4 students took a special trip to the Exploratorium in San Francisco on April 14, seeing a wide variety of exhibits to help them expand on their classroom science education.
Students watched dry ice move around in water, which exemplified the ways comets move through space. They also got to make a six-foot-by-six-foot soap film that, when light shone on it, made a variety of ever-changing color and wave patterns. “My group enjoyed blowing on the film and seeing the changing colors and waves,” said publications coordinator Desiree Mitchell (parent of Lyndsey, Gr. 4), who served as one of the chaperones on the trip.
The real attraction for the students, however, was the dissection of a cow’s eye. “The kids were lined up and waiting for the demonstration to begin,” Mitchell said. “They were very interested in the inner workings of the eye and asked many questions.”
Students from across the Bucknall campus took full advantage of the beautiful weather on March 19, which luckily coincided with the annual “Jump Rope For Heart” extravaganza.
The kids had been collecting donation pledges for the American Heart Association since January, and spent the day on a variety of stations set up to celebrate their efforts.
In the glow of the midday sun, students jumped rope, shot hoops, limboed, navigated miniature obstacle courses and even enjoyed a run through sets of small hurdles.
The Bucknall gym also provided some fun recreation, with more room set aside for jump rope activities. Some students got creative and set up a challenge in which students had to run back and forth under the twirling jump ropes.
Students also had the option to take a quick break and enjoy some healthy snacks over by the lunch tables. Nearby was the “Heart Wall,” where students could attach small paper hearts adorned with special messages for loved ones or others in need.
Donations were still rolling in after the day ended. When all donations were accounted for, exactly $7,000 had been raised.