This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Craig Pasqua, the tennis director at the upper school campus, took his tennis skills off campus this summer – all the way to Oklahoma City, Okla., to compete in the inaugural Jim Thorpe Games. The games benefit the Jim Thorpe Association, which encourages and celebrates excellence in athletes representing Indian nations. “My regular partner, John Blackhawk, who is the CEO of the Winnebago Nation in Nebraska, couldn’t make it so I teamed up with another partner,” Pasqua said. The last-minute change didn’t rattle him. In fact, the duo proved to have a winning chemistry, and they took home a bronze medal in doubles. Pasqua said he had also planned on entering the men’s 35 singles, but the category, it turned out, wasn’t being offered. He instead entered men’s singles, where he was consolation champion.
The games are named after legendary athlete Jim Thorpe, a Native American who competed in college football, professional football, Major League Baseball and the Olympics. All proceeds from the games go to benefit the Jim Thorpe Bright Path Youth programs and Native American diabetes research.
Victor Adler, a mathematics teacher at the upper school, also found an exciting outlet for his talents and experiences this summer. While teaching a pre-calculus summer class, he was offered a diagnostic test to give his students that would help show where each student stood in math placement. Coincidentally, a friend of his who teaches at the University of California, San Diego, called and said he was working on an interesting project – the same diagnostic test Adler had been offered. There was an opening on the test development team, and Adler was happy to join in.
“The cool thing is that these guys have collected a lot of data,” Adler said. “There’s a very methodical, rigorous method to producing questions on this test that allows you to collect good data. You can take the test online and get the data back nearly instantly.” The test helps teachers analyze where students are weak and at what stages. “I have a feeling the test will be a bit too easy for Harker students,” he said. “It’s aimed more at the general public.”
In addition to being part of great data collection and test development, Adler was also able to work with teachers from around the state, including University of California and California State University professors. “It gives me a greater connection to what is being taught at a large swath of educational institutions,” Adler said.
Chrissy Chang, K-8 P.E. department chair, was invited by the San Jose State University department of kinesiology to speak at the department dinner for the university’s 150th graduation in late May. Chang is a 1996 graduate of the department and a former student-athlete on the women’s basketball team. She currently serves on the board of directors for the SJSU Alumni Association and Order of Sparta.
Chang said as a proud alumna, it was an honor to be chosen as the speaker for this event and added that the university has helped shaped her into the person that she is today.
“The celebratory evening was great,” said Chang. “To be in the presence of faculty and staff who prepared me as well as the graduates to be leaders, difference-makers and problem- solvers within the kinesiology field was awesome. It was an opportunity to thank those who gave me the tools and foundation to be successful in my career and share my personal story with the graduates. Be a proud Spartan! Go Spartans! Hail Spartans!”
Chang teaches grade 8 P.E. and middle school health, is a member of the coaching staff and has worked in the past as a director of the summer program.
This article was originally published in the fall 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Many of Harker’s performing arts faculty enhanced their professional resumes this summer, returning to Harker with new stories and new skills.
Jenny Sandusky, who leads lower and upper school vocal ensembles, went on tour to Los Angeles with Ragazzi, a Grammy award-winning boys chorus based on the peninsula. Sandusky is the group’s associate artistic director.
Karl Kuehn, upper school dance teacher, also connected with Ragazzi. “I worked [with them] on choreography for their upcoming season,” he notes. Kuehn also taught a summer dance intensive at Atlas School of Dance in San Jose and attended the Dance Teacher’s Summit in New York City, where participants took part in movement sessions, seminars and workshops led by expert teachers.
Monica Colletti, middle school performing arts teacher, visited the famed Second City organization in Chicago. “I worked on my improvisation skills in a week-long intensive course in improv and sketch writing,” she said. Second City is a top-notch theater and improvisation group that has produced countless Saturday Night Live alumni.
Danny Dunn, lower school technical director, wrote and directed two circus shows in the month of July and found outlets for a wide variety of skills across various media including finishing another children’s book.
Every summer, Jeff Draper, upper school performing arts teacher and dean of the class of 2013, is the education director at Young Rep, a theater workshop in Walnut Creek now in its 39th year. He directed and taught classes as varied as British scene study performance, Shakespeare in performance, a make-up master class and an advanced voice and speech class. He also taught film acting: “A lot of film equipment that I learned how to use and edit with, I will be using at Harker this fall.”
Upper school music teacher Susan Nace participated in Harker’s Tamagawa teacher exchange program. Read the full story here.
Finally, Laura Lang-Ree, K-12 performing arts department chair, worked on both her directing skills and her theater skills at the Broadway Teachers Workshop in New York City, a course that brings in current Broadway professionals to work with participants. She took courses on script analysis, vocal interpretation and dance. Lang-Ree is also the vocalist for the Los Gatos/Saratoga Big Band, and performed with them at Santana Row and the San Jose Jazz Festival.
For the last four years, Jaap Bongers, Harker’s upper school art department instructor and chair, has used the summer break as a unique opportunity to personally donate items to needy children in the Republic of Zambia, a landlocked country in Southern Africa.
“I have been going there every summer and one time I even went during the Christmas break,” said Bongers, explaining that, in preparation for the annual sojourn, he uses the school year to collect toys, children’s clothes and children’s books (many of which have been donated by Harker students) for the Zambian children.
Come summer, he fills a big plastic storage box with the donated items which he takes with him to Zambia. There, he donates the toys, books and clothes to the neediest children he encounters.
“I do this while traveling to very remote villages where there are still wonderful ages-old original culture. Initiation rituals, traditional dances by masked actors and healing ceremonies by witch doctors can still be found although it is getting harder and harder to locate them.”
After handing out and emptying the storage box of donated toys, Bongers then re-fills it with ancient traditional artifacts he discovers and buys on his travels. “I note down their use, meaning and age. I have found objects and heard about customs that were not yet known. Once I return to Harker I use this information, the items and the pictures for my Study of Visual Art class,” he said, noting that his house is filling up with an impressive collection of ancient traditional African art.
A particularly interesting find this year was an old food box from the Lozi tribe, which Zambian women use to present food to their husbands. In addition to discovering such treasures, Bongers also enjoyed such cultural experiences as buying an ancient artifact from a witch doctor, watching a traditional masked dance at night in Kaoma, and meeting Makishi dancers near Mongu in the Western Province.
The remote villages that Bongers visits are reminiscent of the hunter-gatherers and migrating tribes who inhabited the country for thousands of years before Zambia was claimed and occupied by the British as protectorate of Northern Rhodesia towards the end of the 19th century. In 1964, the protectorate gained independence with the new name of Zambia, derived from the Zambezi River which flows through the country.
Zambia’s economy has been traditionally dominated by the copper mining industry, however, during the 1970s, the country began sliding into a poverty from which it has not yet recovered – which is why the donated goods Bongers collects during the school year and hands out in the summer are so appreciated.
It’s not every day Harker librarians get the opportunity to spread their passion for reading by handing out free copies of their favorite books to an unsuspecting public.
Armed with a fierce belief in the power of the written word, two Harker librarians joined fellow bookworms from across the United States in participation of World Book Night, an ambitious campaign to give away half a million books for free in just one day.
On April 23, Lauri Vaughan, upper school campus librarian and Bernie Morrissey, middle school librarian, undertook the concerted effort to promote the joy of reading – one person at a time. From Kodiak, Ala., to Key West, Fla., in 6,000 towns and cities across America, volunteers like Vaughan and Morrissey went out into the community in order to share books in locations as diverse as hospitals, nursing homes, schools, ballparks, mass transit, diners and more.
Volunteers were given 20 specially printed copies of their stated favorite books, personally giving them away to new or light readers. They tried to reach many people in underserved places, knowing that a book has the power to open up the doors to new possibilities, and help make the world a better place.
American booksellers and publishers partnered with the first World Book Night in the U.S., following the impressive launch of this campaign by their bookselling and publishing colleagues in the U.K. and Ireland last year. This year, World Book Night took place in the U.K., U.S., and Germany, with thousands of volunteers going out into their communities to give away the special free paperbacks.
Vaughan, who is vice president of the Bay Area Independent School Librarian Association, chose to give out 20 copies of Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” at the Summit Store on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
“I gave away 20 copies … it was so fun! I had to convince shoppers in about 10 seconds they should take the book from me. I had about a 90 percent success rate – almost anyone who listened took a copy of the book. Some needed convincing, but I loved the guy who said, ‘I know this book!’ and snatched it out of my hand. Overall it was a wonderful experience and gave me a great opportunity to practice my reading evangelism in public. It took me about a half hour to give away all 20 copies of ‘Ender’s Game,’” recalled Vaughan.
Meanwhile, Morrissey took to the streets of San Francisco, handing out his beloved copies of Patti Smith’s “Just Kids” at the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus’ rehearsal. “All 20 copies were gone in less than five minutes. I had announced the event in email and Facebook messages ahead of time, but some who didn’t get the message were suspicious about something being offered for free, with no strings attached. If given the opportunity, I would definitely participate again next year, probably by standing at the corner of 18th and Castro, handing out books in a much less structured environment,” he said.
The books, whittled down to 30 popular titles, were chosen by a panel of booksellers and librarians through several rounds of voting. The printing of the free books was possible due to generosity of the authors, publishers and book manufacturing companies.
Examples of some of the books handed out included: “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou (Ballantine), “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins (Scholastic), “Blood Work” by Michael Connelly (Grand Central), “Zeitoun” by Dave Eggers (Vintage), “The Stand” by Stephen King (Anchor) and “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult (Atria).
World Book Night in the U.S. is a nonprofit organization, backed by publishers, Barnes & Noble, the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, Ingram Content Group, United Parcel Services, and more than a dozen printers and paper companies.
Anna Quindlen, the U.S. campaign’s Honorary National Chairperson, said: “What’s better than a good book? A whole box of them, and the opportunity to share them with new readers. The idea behind World Book Night is inspired, and as a writer and a reader I’m thrilled to be part of it.”
Every year, Harker employees who have been with the school for five years are recognized for their service to the community by receiving commemorative pins. Every subsequent five years, a diamond is set into the pin to signify the employees’ continued dedication.
A total of 27 employees received new pins this year. They are: Miriam Allersma, Michelle Anderson, Raelynn Baldwin, Samantha Brailey, Joe Connolly, Linda Felice, Ray Fowler, Sabina Grogan, Sabrina Gutierrez, Katherine Hammond, Andrew Irvine, Butch Keller, Jane Keller, Karl Kuehn, Greg Lawson, Joseph Lejander, Danae McLaughlin, Luis Mayorga-Perez, Andrea Milius, Bernard Morrissey, Matt Ortiz, Erin Redfern, Ramon Rivera, Chris Spenner, Nancy Tomlitz, Jennifer Walrod and Pauline Warren.
Employees honored for 10 years of service were: Pilar Aguero-Esparza, Manuel Amaya, Monica Colletti, Roberto Fernandez, Anita Gilbert, Manuel Gomez, Derek Kameda, Kumi Matsui, Alexandra Rosenboom, Ruth Meyer, Antonio Mora Perez, Susan Nace, Lori Philipp, Jose Flores Ramirez, Ignacio Rojas, Vince Salinas and Jose Serrano.
Employees honored for 15 years of service were: Giresh Ghooray, Steven Hewitt, Juan Jimenez, Cyrus Merrill, Marianne Rager, Vonda Reid, Efren Parra Rivera and Janet Rohrer.
Kristin Giammona was recognized for 20 years of service and Lisa Hackwood for 25 years.
JR Del Alto, Sarah Leonard, Lisa Machuca, Nan Nielsen and Joe Rosenthal all received recognition for 30 years of service, and Cindy Ellis and Gene Sanchez were honored for their 35 years with Harker.
This article was originally published in the summer 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Library Director Contributes Chapter to Book Susan Smith, Harker’s library director, has contributed a chapter to a new book being published in the spring. The book, called “Growing Schools – Librarians as Professional Developers,” presents examples of school librarians leading professional learning in numerous contexts and for diverse learning goals with remarkable success.
“This is the story of Harker’s information literacy program which originated under [former library director] Enid Davis in 2006,” says Smith. “The chapter is a chronicle of how we built administrative and faculty support for teaching a scope and sequence of skills essential for 21st-century learning.” Originally a single team of teachers, librarians and administrators, the Information Literacy Committee has since grown to three campusbased committees, and the program has been integrated into upper school departmental initiatives.
The program allows Harker’s library director and site-based librarians to gain administrative support as they create a whole-school initiative that positions information literacy as essential learning for students of all ages. A faculty team then designs and implements a process to incorporate these information literacy skills into disciplinary content classroom by classroom.
“The librarians’ understanding of curricula, instructional design expertise and information systems knowledge uniquely positions them as faculty professional developers,” says Smith. “Harker’s K-12 approach is exceptional and our success remarkable.”
Harker Teacher Appointed to Gavilan College Board of Trustees The Gavilan College School Board has appointed Harker teacher Jonathan Brusco to its board of trustees. After the tragic death of one of its members left an open seat, the board solicited applications from the community. When Brusco heard of the opening, he realized his areas of expertise were perfectly suited for the position.
Brusco, who teaches grade 7 social studies, is credentialed to teach both elementary and high school students. Before Harker, Brusco taught in the philosophy department at San Jose State University. “I have an understanding of what students are capable of at a younger age and also a general idea of how prepared students are when they start at a four-year university,” said Brusco. “I think my educational background really played a part in the board selecting me, but I think they also appreciate the fact that I came from Harker.”
Brusco believes bringing the perspective of a private educational institution, unencumbered by the same regulations, laws and budgets of the state, may have been attractive to the board. “In addition, Harker is a multicampus school, as is Gavilan College, and both schools are expanding to new campuses in the future,” says Brusco.
Teaching at both San Jose State and Harker showed Brusco the acute disparity in college preparedness among students. “Working at Harker has really opened my eyes to the true potential of younger students,” said Brusco. “I know that all our students enter four-year universities well-prepared for what lies ahead, but having taught at San Jose State, I can’t say that this is the case for every new college student.” As a board member, Brusco says he wants to focus on making sure community college students have access to coursework that will best prepare and equip them for moving on to a four-year university. Brusco’s term lasts until November of this year, whereupon he will run for reelection.
Teacher Appreciation Events Afford Students and Parents Welcome Opportunities to Express Gratitude All year, Harker teachers go above and beyond their duty to help create a community not only of learners, but kind, well-rounded individuals as well.
Their hard work was recognized and rewarded this spring, honored by both students and parents during a series of schoolwide annual teacher appreciation events held in May.
Each campus hosted its own appreciation events, with the teachers treated to delicious meals expertly prepared and served by both parents and students. The lower and middle school breakfasts and luncheons were organized by grade level coordinators, while the upper school event, a breakfast, was entirely arranged by the students themselves.
At the upper school, outgoing student council officers whipped up and served a hot, hearty breakfast for the Saratoga campus teachers, who enjoyed their meal in the Edge before school officially started for the day.
“As the year winds to a close, all of the students are reminded of how much we owe you for teaching us, mentoring us and inspiring us to learn and push ourselves,” Revanth Kosaraju, grade 12 and outgoing associated student body president, said, noting that the breakfast was just a token of student appreciation.
Meanwhile, middle school teachers began their day with an equally delicious breakfast served in the multipurpose room, followed by a moving presentation to thank them for their dedication. In the afternoon, middle school parents continued the festivities by hosting an elegant luncheon for teachers.
Lower school teachers had their special breakfast served by parents in the faculty lounge. Later, they joined parents for an outdoor lunch held on the school’s front field. Parents thanked teachers for “another year of unconditional dedication to students.” Attendees enjoyed the glorious weather, wide variety of entrees and desserts, and easy conversation.
According to Teré Aceves, one of Harker’s directors of volunteer programming, “The appreciation breakfasts and lunches are a welcome opportunity for parents to express their gratitude for the yearlong efforts of teachers who provide a stimulating and nurturing environment for their children.”
Lower School Welcomes New Dean Kendricks (Ken) Allen will be the dean of Harker’s lower school beginning next year. Allen joins Harker after 12 years teaching and coaching at the Fort Worth Country Day School (FWCDS). Allen earned a B.S. in exercise and sport science from Colorado State University and holds a master’s degree in educational administration from Texas Christian University.
At FWCDS, Allen actively pursued a passion for developing lifetime fitness skills in young children. In addition to teaching K-5 physical education, Allen spent seven years as the head track and field coach for the 60- to 80-member upper school team and oversaw the development of the middle school program for both boys and girls. He also spent 12 years as an assistant varsity football coach at the upper school and was head coach for middle school football. He has been an assistant coach in girls basketball, a middle school academic advisor and has served on the school’s Diversity Committee and Tech Advisory Committee. He is a member of the Texas High School Coaches Association, the Texas Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, and certified as a United States Track and Field Association Level I coach.
Allen arrives on campus July 30, following his wedding to his fiancée, Jenna. “The Harker School is regarded as the finest independent school in the Bay Area; I’m humbled and honored to be part of the faculty and staff,” said Allen. “I’m looking forward to working on the Bucknall campus and building on the successful foundation that they have established. My fiancée and I look forward to being a part of the Harker community.”
This story was originally published in the Spring 2012 issue of Harker Quarterly
Debra Nott, director of nursing, hosted a meeting of the Nurses Association of Santa Clara County in the Nichols Hall rotunda on Feb. 8. Nott is president of the group, which meets thrice yearly to discuss issues relevant to school nurses and to provide continuing education. Before the meeting, the visiting nurses were treated to a campus tour. “Since all the other nurses are from public schools, you can imagine how impressed they were with our campus,” said Nott. “They kept asking me if I planned to retire any time soon!”
After the tour everyone did some networking, then sat down to enjoy a delicious buffet dinner catered by the Harker kitchen staff. “The rotunda was a beautiful venue and the catering staff did a spectacular job of setting out food that was not only delicious, but beautifully presented as well,” said Nott. During dinner, the Nurses Association heard two speakers on Autism Spectrum Disorders, a growing issue for schools. The first speaker was a young man with autism who spoke of his experience attending school and the challenges he faced. The second speaker was Dr. Pilar Bernal, whose practice deals exclusively with children and adults with autism.
RewindRevise.com, a prominent national blog on poetry and writing, interviewed Alexandra Mattraw Rosenboom, upper school English teacher, on poetry, art and the joy of teaching at Harker.
In the interview, Rosenboom said, “Poetry is everything,” adding, “Writing is that innate and inherent in my perception and the way that I live …. It is so inherent in what I have to do to be happy.” Rosenboom, who holds a B.A. in creative writing from UCLA, an M.A. in humanities from the University of Chicago and an MFA in poetry from the University of San Francisco, advised aspiring writers: “Of course, write every day.”
Rosenboom also spoke of her experience teaching at Harker. She said she loved being a teacher and felt lucky to spend her time with “brilliant and inspiring students while swimming in readings and discussions of James Joyce, Toni Morrison, Camus, Shakespeare and Dostoevsky.” She added that without Harker’s support of her passion, completing her MFA would have been much more difficult.
Rosenboom published her first chapbook, “Projection,” through Achiote Press, and is working on a new book titled “Inside the Mind’s Hotel.”
Faculty members put forth a great effort in late April, but succumbed to eighth graders on the volleyball court 48-42. This annual event drew cheering crowds as first the grade 8 girls, then grade 8 boys took the court against a hodgepodge of faculty and staff and crushed all hope of a faculty free dress day.
“Faculty got off to a slow start,” said Kyle Cavallaro, school photographer. “We caught up as we warmed up and made the grade 8 boys work, but they were better than I thought they would be!”
“With great plays and spectacular saves, it was a game to remember!” said Lana Morrison, middle school dean of students. On May 24 all students will have free dress while, alas, faculty and staff will wear the middle school uniform.
Middle school mathematics chair Vandana Kadam is currently on an exchange trip in Shanghai to visit and instruct at the World Foreign Language Middle School.
Kadam has been observing and teaching classes, including four sections of grade 6 classes. “The students have been extremely receptive and that curiosity I see in them makes it fun for me to teach,” said Kadam. Her classes include a mix of Chinese students fairly proficient in English and those newer to English. She also has a Chinese co-teacher to translate her lessons if needed.
The language barrier, however, is proving itself to be mostly a non-issue. “[The Chinese students] were comfortable interacting with me as I used some manipulatives and played games with them,” said Kadam.
Coming up, Kadam will be teaching grades 7-10, and has been making lesson plans based on what teachers and students requested would be most beneficial.
Three Harker middle school social studies teachers recently returned from the 51st annual conference of the California Council for the Social Studies, held in Orange County.
The teachers – Jonathan Brusco, Keith Hirota and Cyrus Merril – were among conference attendees who annually come together as a group, from across the state and beyond, to share insights and ideas, collaborate and inspire one another in efforts to support and sustain a strong history/social studies education program for students.
“The best teachers are always trying to come up with new, innovative ways to engage their students and this convention is a means for them to share their great ideas with other educators,” said history teacher Brusco.
“This was my second year attending the convention and each year I brought back something innovative to implement in my classroom. This time I learned about a new method, called the four worlds, for students to do analysis of social studies topics. I’ve already begun utilizing it in my classroom.”
For more than 50 years, the conference’s mission has remained consistent: to prepare and equip the next generation with the necessary skills, understanding and dispositions to maintain a democratic republic.
This year’s theme was Social Studies to the Core! The theme explored how common core standards can be used as a tool to advance critical thinking through analytical reading and writing exercises with social studies content.
Keynote speakers and scholars included Holocaust survivor, author and Medal of Freedom recipient Gerda Weissmann Klein; “Enrique’s Journey” author Sonia Nazario; English Language Learning expert Margarita Jimenez-Silva; National Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools executive director Ted McConnell; and California Court of Appeals Justice Judith McConnell.
Sessions and workshops made up the bulk of the conference with programming delivered by K-12 teaching colleagues and other educators. An added bonus was an exhibit hall, complete with vendors on hand to hook up conference attendees with the latest instructional materials for use in the social studies classroom.
Social events included an appetizer reception where guests networked with colleagues and friends, an awards dinner and a breakfast with a legislative advocate. Next year’s conference will be held in San Francisco.