During the second half of September, Harker welcomed Longxiang “Rick” Jiang, an English teacher at the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy, as part of this year’s teacher exchange with the school. Jiang began his visit at the middle school, where he sat in on a variety of classes, including grade 8 American History, as well as some writing and English classes. He also taught three sessions of Xiuyu Gao’s Mandarin class.
Next, Jiang headed to the upper school, where he visited a business leadership class, an AP English literature class and a theater class, among others. As he did at the middle school, Jiang spent some time teaching to Shaun Jahshan’s Mandarin students.
Jiang wrapped up his visit with a day at the lower school, attending a special assembly with storyteller Jim Cogan and enjoying lunch with a group of teachers. Despite his busy schedule, Jiang did find some time for leisure, taking in the sights around San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Cruz!
During the Presidents’ Week break, nine upper school students (accompanied by French teachers Agnes Pommier and Galina Tchourilova) embarked on a new international education trip to Quebec, where they were treated to an extensive look at the Canadian province’s history and culture. The five-day trip started with a tour of Quebec City and its numerous landmarks, a curling lesson and a visit to Wendake, a Huron-Wendat Nation reserve. In the following days, students made drawings from copper at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, visited an ice hotel, went tubing down snow-covered slopes and sampled crepes in Montreal. More info and photos are available at a special blog set up for the trip.
Last month, the middle school hosted some special guests during the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy’s annual visit to Harker! The guests – 18 students and three chaperones – spent a week experiencing Harker and learning more about the daily lives of students by observing classes and conducting group activities, such as crafts and cooking, with their Harker buddies.
The SWFLA visitors also took the opportunity to see more of California during their trip, visiting the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.
Earlier this month, Wei Chen of the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy paid a two-week visit to Harker for this year’s teacher exchange with Harker. An English teacher at SWFLA, Chen visited the lower, middle and upper school campuses during his visit, viewing several English and Mandarin classes at each campus.
While at the lower school, Chen taught students about extracurricular activities at SWFLA, as well as other aspects of life in China, including food and holidays. He also brought letters and poems written by his students at SWFLA. The Harker students happily wrote responses to the letters from their friends overseas. “[My students] were super curious about everything – about my trip to Harker, about the United States and about peers of their own age,” Chen said. “I was really glad that the Harker students offered to share so many things about their school and their life and themselves.”
Chen spent the second week of his visit at the upper school, where he taught Mandarin in Xiuyu Gao’s and Shaun Jahshan’s classes, sat in on several English classes and cheered on the girls volleyball team. Not one to squander a trip to California, Chen made time on weekends to visit places including Napa and San Francisco, where he ventured to Chinatown and Coit Tower. “It was really amazing to see get a bird’s view of the whole city of San Francisco from the top of the tower,” he said.
Last month, upper school theater teacher Jeffrey Draper visited Australia as this year’s exchange teacher to St. Stephen’s College in Coomera, Queensland, located on the Gold Coast. Draper, who was notified of the opportunity by global education director Jennifer Walrod, said “[I’ve] always wanted to visit Australia and I’ve enjoyed having visitors from St. Stephen’s as guests in my classroom over the years.”
Draper spent much of his time at St. Stephen’s observing classes and noticed some similarities between the school and Harker, such as its record for academic achievements and high-quality extracurricular programs. “Where they have a house system as [Harker’s] middle school does, Harker’s upper school chooses to have competitions by class instead,” said Draper, who also noted that students at St. Stephen’s wear uniforms across all grade levels, and that its location in a tropical climate brings with it an array of birds whose calls make a nice soundtrack to the “very lush, green campus.”
Draper also appreciated St. Stephen’s emphasis on group collaboration, noting that a floor in one of the school’s central buildings is dedicated solely to team projects. He also enjoyed how the school dealt with student stress, “with the single counselor on campus assisting a large academic support program called Learning Enhancement,” he said. “The dedication of a large central space in the middle of the campus gives their Learning Enhancement staff a full-time space to focus only on academic support.”
Aside from his time at St. Stephen’s, Draper also enjoyed several sightseeing opportunities, visiting Cairns and its famous Great Barrier Reef, where he went scuba diving for the first time. The trip also included visits to Brisbane and Sydney.
In late March, two dozen grade 7 and 8 students visited Greece for a weeklong journey, visiting the sites of many pivotal historical events and experiencing its complex culture firsthand. Students detailed their daily activities on their blog of the trip.
Major events during the first two days included a stop at the massive Corinth Canal and exploring the seaside town of Nafplio, as well as seeing the Theatre of Epidaurus and learning of its importance in the formation of theater arts. Students also visited a Mycenaean tomb and an acropolis.
At Crete, the largest of the Greek Islands, students viewed ancient frescoes and artifacts at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum and toured the storied palace of Knossos, believed to be the inspiration for the myth of the labyrinth and its prisoner, the Minotaur. Other stops included the Arkadi Monastery, which dates back to the fifth century and today still operates as an Eastern Orthodox monastery.
In Athens, students visited the site of the Battle of Marathon, as well as other famous landmarks including the Agora, the Acropolis and the Parthenon, learning history and purpose of each of the ancient structures.
Naturally, the students also made the most of every opportunity to shop and sample the country’s tremendous variety of foods!
Melody Huang, a teacher at the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy, spent two weeks in mid-September at Harker as part of this year’s teacher exchange with the Chinese sister school. She began her first week at Harker by visiting several lower school English classes, as well as Jared Ramsey’s U.S. history class and Tobias Wade’s world geography class. At the middle school, she taught Mandarin to Xiuyu Gao’s students, and observed classes in English and expository writing.
The following week, Huang visited several classes at the upper school and taught in Shaun Jahshan’s Mandarin classes. She also observed several English classes and witnessed the fun of the upper school’s Spirit Week celebrations, including the raucous Homecoming Rally.
“I absolutely love the people here. I felt very welcomed since the first day I came,” Huang recalled. “Everyone wears a smile when I meet them in the hallway. And I remember there were couple of times people just came up to me and asked if I needed any help.”
During one weekend outing, Huang traveled to the Los Angeles area, where she visited beaches, museums and art galleries. She also toured the Bay Area, making sojourns to spots around San Jose (particularly its many confectioneries) and enjoying a day in San Francisco.
Upon arrival back home, Huang said she hopes to integrate some of what she learned at Harker into her work at SWFLA. “Bringing food and tea to the advisory session is definitely something I’m going to do when I get back!” she exclaimed.
Sept. 8 was a special day for Heather Russell’s grade 3 morning language arts students, who became the first at Harker to use virtual reality (VR) technology as a teaching tool in the classroom. Students wore headsets equipped with smartphones that displayed special YouTube videos, giving them a full 360-degree view of the area shown in the videos.
The students used the technology to take a virtual trip to Tokyo’s Shibuya Station, one of Japan’s busiest rail stations. Russell instructed them to be on the lookout for the statue of Hachiko, an Akita dog famous in Japan for waiting at Shibuya Station every day for nearly a decade for his deceased owner to return. Hachiko’s perseverance made him a national symbol of loyalty.
Russell’s students, who had been reading a story about Hachiko, watched two videos with the use of the headsets and wrote out their reactions to each video, describing how they might feel if they had to travel that way to school each day and how they might feel if they were Hachiko himself.
The annual middle school trip to Japan in mid-May took 23 grade 6 students across the Pacific to meet with their buddies at Tamagawa Academy, and see many of the country’s cultural and geographic landmarks. After arriving in Tokyo on May 11, the students spent a couple of days exploring the city. They visited the Edo-Tokyo Museum, the Sumo Museum and the Anime Museum, where they learned about the process of making an animated film.
Tamagawa Academy gave Harker a warm welcome on May 13, despite less-than-savory weather conditions. “Despite the heavy rain, we were greeted with excitement, big smiles, and hugs from Tamagawa buddies, parents and teachers,” reported Alana Butler, middle school dean of students, who served as a chaperone on the trip. Both Tamagawa and Harker students gave speeches, and Tamagawa’s middle school headmaster welcomed the Harker representatives and offered his appreciation for the 21-year relationship between the two schools. Following the ceremony, Harker students left with their homestays for the remainder of the weekend.
The Harker students spent much of their first full day at Tamagawa attending classes with their buddies, including English, math, science and foreign languages. During a stop at Tamgawa’s agricultural department, “We learned that the university is producing lettuce, selected herbs and fruit using specific LED lights and light combinations,” said Butler. “It was an amazing sight to see!”
The next day started with a brief welcome meeting with Tamagawa head of school Yoshiaki Obara, after which the group headed to the school’s planetarium. “As Keiko of the planetarium program explained, it is rare that a planetarium is attached to a school,” Butler wrote. “Therefore, having one at Tamagawa is truly special.” Later that day, the students attended a special assembly that included performances of karate, ballet, fencing and comedy. Harker students Ashley Ruan, Arissa Huda and Aria Jain performed as well.
The final day of Harker’s visit to Tamagawa began with students participating in the Tamagawa lower school’s morning assembly and daily exercise routine. “As Harker guests, we joined in and brought smiles to many faces,” wrote Butler. They later attended English and music classes at the lower school. “Since the students are very young and at the beginning stages of learning English, lessons involved students walking around and introducing themselves to their new Harker friends,” Butler said.
The students spent the rest of the day with their Tamagawa buddies, attending classes and enjoying lunch before emotional farewells were exchanged. “Hugs, smiles and tears were all present as our Harker students said goodbye to their Tamagawa buddies,” Butler wrote. “Feeling like most parents saying goodbye to their children, the Tamagawa moms and dads were just as sad to see their Harker guest children leave.”
Upon arriving in Kyoto the next day, the group set out to explore the former Japanese capital with their tour guide, Akira. “As we drove around, Akira pointed out foliage, statues and other things that were specific to the area,” wrote Butler. The students and chaperones had a great time watching a kimono fashion show at the Nishijin Textile Center and seeing the Fushimi Shinto shrine. Once the large crowds had subsided, they also walked through Kiyomizu Temple.
On May 19, the group spent their final full day in Japan in Hiroshima, where they toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Local guides Mito and Michiko provided historical facts and personal stories regarding the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima in August 1945. The students presented 1,000 paper cranes that they had folded, which were left at the Children’s Peace Monument in memory of the wish of Sadako Sasaki, who fell ill following the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and folded origami cranes in the hopes that she would be granted a wish upon folding 1,000 of them, in accordance with an ancient legend.
Their final cultural stop on the trip was at Miyajima Island, where they walked with deer and viewed the Itsukushima Shrine, built more than 1,400 years ago.
The second part of this year’s exchange with the Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy kicked off in late March. Thirteen middle school students – accompanied by global education director Jennifer Walrod, lower school English teacher Kate Shanahan and technical theater teacher Paul Vallerga – traveled to China to visit with their SWFLA buddies and experience some of the country’s rich history, culture and geographic landmarks.
Upon arriving on March 28, the Harker students met up with their SWFLA buddies and families who would be their homestays for the following few days. The students received a very warm welcome on their first day at SWFLA, where they were treated to a flag raising ceremony and introduced themselves to the school in Mandarin. “Apparently … on our drive back from the airport, the SWFLA buddies were busy teaching our kids how to introduce themselves in Mandarin,” said Walrod. Later, the Harker students attended a class on Shanghai history and participated in an art class. The students spent the afternoon learning how to make dumplings and spring rolls,” Walrod said. “Luckily, they did a good job as that is what we ate for dinner.”
Harker students embarked on a field trip the next day to the town of Zhujiajiao, often called the “Venice of China” because of its large network of canals. The visit started with a boat ride to the Fangsheng Bridge. “Once we arrived, everyone bought bags of fish and turtles to set free in order to give them a second life,” said Erica Cai, grade 7. “We then strolled down the many streets and shops of Zhujiajiao, bargaining with the merchants there. All of the vendors were kind and willing to lower prices for us.”
April 1 was the final day for Harker students to spend time on campus with their SWFLA buddies. The day started with morning exercises and a martial arts class, followed by a class on Tibetan-style dance. In music class, the students learned about movements from the Peking opera and Chinese instruments such as the pipa and guzheng. At the end of the day, the Harker guests were treated to a farewell ceremony that included performances by both Harker and SWFLA students.
Harker students spent the next few days with their homestays before departing for Beijing on April 5. Their first stop in China’s massive capital city was the Temple of Heaven, where they learned of the temple’s history as a symbol of the relationship between heaven and earth. After a brief tai chi lesson on the temple grounds, the group headed for the Hutongs, a network of narrow streets and alleyways, where they visited a traditional home known as a “siheyuan,” which consists of a group of small dwellings situated around a courtyard. They also whipped through the alleyways on rickshaws, which Saumi Mehta, grade 7, described as “less bumpy than expected, but fast!”
The next day in Beijing started with a stroll through Tiananmen Square, where they learned about the Monument to People’s Heroes and the Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao. Later, they visited the Forbidden City, one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which contains 9,000 rooms in 800 buildings. They later visited the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, which features a corridor that stretches for more than 700 meters.
The students’ final day in China was a full one, starting with a trip to the Spirit Walkway of the Ming Tombs, which serves as the resting place for 13 Chinese emperors. “We wandered down the pathway, taking numerous photos of opposing pairs of animal and human statues lining the way,” said Walrod. Later, the group headed to the Great Wall of China, walking along the world-famous fortification, taking photos and marveling at the massive structure. “As we descended from the wall, we basked in the fact that we had just seen one of the wonders of the world!” recalled Emma Andrews, grade 8.
At dinner that evening, the students enjoyed Peking duck while viewing a shadow puppet show, and went shopping one last time before leaving the next day.