This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
“One Hit Wonders!,” this year’s lower school dance production, which took place at the Bucknall Theater at the end of the school year, featured 240 dancers from grades 1-5 moving to the rhythm of some of the most famous one-time chart-toppers of decades past.
Students performed numbers to songs such as the “The Safety Dance” by Men Without Hats, “Come On Eileen” by Dexy’s Midnight Runners, “Yummy Yummy Yummy” by Ohio Express, The Cascades’ “Rhythm of the Rain” and Eiffel 65’s “Blue (Da Ba Dee).” In all, 28 routines were performed at each show.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Dance Jamz, the annual middle school dance show, entertained audiences at the Blackford Theater on March 8-9. Directed by Gail Palmer with choreography by Rachelle Ellis, Grant Chenok, Stephanie Bayer, Kimberley Teodoro and Palmer herself, middle school students (and several faculty members) hit the stage to perform a variety of uptempo dance numbers set to music by Skrillex, David Guetta, No Doubt, Michael Jackson and more. One of the highlights of the show was a routine featuring a cast made up entirely of faculty members, including history teacher Cyrus Merrill, English teacher Patricia Lai Burrows and art teacher Elizabeth Saltos. The finale saw the entire cast of dancers gather on the stage for a rousing number that received a fittingly enthusiastic ovation.
As usual, the stalwart crew of set designer Paul Vallerga, sound engineer Brian Larsen and lighting designer Natti Pierce-Thomson worked tirelessly to keep all the moving parts of this technically demanding show in order.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
A series of presentations started in 2011-12 seeks to equip Harker parents with the knowledge necessary to help their children become well-rounded digital citizens. The advent of constant access to the Internet and unprecedented interconnectivity via social media has made sound digital citizenship and management of one’s online identity more important than ever. While the instructional technology department had been engaging students and faculty on concepts of digital citizenship for some time, instructors realized that parents could benefit from knowing how their children were learning to conduct themselves online, and in turn could find the information useful in how they managed their students’ screen time.
“We realized that we were telling the students things that the parents didn’t necessarily know,” said Dan Hudkins, director of instructional technology. “And that if what we’re trying to do is build Harker’s community and have effective parent-school partnerships, that this was an area where we could help Harker parents better understand what they needed to do to cope with all of the things that were going on.”
These talks began at the lower and middle schools, with K-5 parents learning about topics such as creating passwords, acting respectfully toward others online, interacting with strangers online, deciding what information should be shared with others and cyberbullying. Topics for each presentation are kept developmentally appropriate for the grade level of each family.
At the middle school level, topics include an introduction to social media, personal responsibilities in creating and managing an online identity and the various online tools that children may be using, such as Tumblr and Google Chat. “We let [students] know that we already know how they’re using [the Internet],” said Scott Kley Contini, assistant director of technology at the middle school, who designed and gave the parent presentations along with Gary Mallare, middle school academic counselor. A key point in developing these presentations was to make sure that they were more informative than cautionary.
“We wanted to make sure that we weren’t telling parents what to do,” said Kley Contini. “We said, this is what we’ve done and then left it open.”
This approach, he said, better enabled parents to make informed choices about what was best for their children.
Upper school presentations began in the spring semester and primarily informed parents about how their children were learning to manage their digital footprints, which included their students’ activities on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. “This is the point when the juniors need to be thinking about, well, what is a college going to find out about me if they go looking online?” Hudkins said. “And just as we’ve had student assemblies that addressed issues like that, we wanted to make sure we were talking with the parents about the same issues we were talking about with the students.”
The upper school talks, given by Diane Main, assistant director of instructional technology, emphasized the importance of enabling students to make good decisions on their own. “If [parents] lock down everything, they don’t get the opportunity to make a right choice. You’ve already made the choice for them,” she said. “We want to help our parents feel like they’re informed and that they can be involved in their students’ technology use in an appropriate way.”
Harker’s recently emerging philosophy on how to teach students and parents about online conduct is partly a reaction to information in the media and some educational materials that was perceived to be too fearful in tone.
“There was a lot of information that we do not think particularly highly of that came out five or 10 years ago that uses what I refer to as the ‘fear voice,’” Hudkins said.
“It scares them into not doing anything [online],” Kley Contini concurred.
One of the primary resources for the information contained within the presentations was Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit organization that provides a wealth of information for parents and educators, including film reviews, book recommendations and, of particular use to the instructional technology department, resources on digital citizenship. Also, as Hudkins remarks, “they don’t use the fear voice.”
“We’ve used a lot of their stuff as the backbone of our sequencing and some of our topics,” Kley Contini said.
According to Kley Contini, parent response to the presentations so far has been positive overall. “The statement that children must earn screen time stayed with me,” said Chi- Pei Cherng, parent of Justin Chao, grade 1, and Jonathan Chao, grade 4. “Our family value of being responsible needs to carry over to their screen time mentality as well. It’s a subtle shift in thought from screen time as a prize or bribe to a simple acceptance that our responsibilities come first.”
While parents have shown appreciation for the talks, the courses of action that parents are taking in response have varied, with some parents instituting tighter restrictions on Internet usage and others relaxing them.
“For the most part, what we’re telling them is, you can go whatever route you want,” Kley Contini said. “We’re teaching them at a developmentally appropriate level, and we want you to know what that level is.”
Hudkins explained that part of the overall K-12 scope of the presentations is the idea that restrictions should gradually be lowered so that graduating seniors conduct themselves online properly once they are in college and free of constant supervision.
“The point we’re trying to make is to empower the parents to continue parenting, but to recognize that along the way, the process from kindergarten through 12th grade is one of very gradually letting go, and if kids have difficulty managing this kind of behavior when they’re in high school, we want them to fall on their faces now when we can pick them up and help them,” he said.
“We don’t want them to be so tightly wrapped that when they leave here and are no longer under adult supervision, they just explode.”
People outside Harker have also shown an interest in the school’s approach to this topic. At a February conference held by the California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), Kley Contini and Mallare prepared a presentation on how they speak to students and parents about online conduct and digital citizenship. At least one school has contacted Kley Contini so far about modeling its approach after Harker’s.
“I believe that these events can benefit every parent,” said Cherng. “Media exposure is pervasive in our children’s childhood, and it’s important to be aware of how to guide them in a positive, thoughtful and safe manner.”
“It’s important that we’re able to communicate what we’re telling kids, what our expectations are, and that we know that some kids are going to mess up,” Main said. “We’re just continuing what Harker does for students but in this specific area.”
Music lovers packed the Bucknall Theater on May 9 for a special performance by many of Harker’s youngest musicians, as several instrumental groups took the stage at the Spring Music Concert.
The show started fittingly enough with a performance of “The Harker School Song” by the Bucknall Choir, lower school orchestra and lower school string ensemble, led respectively by Kellie Binney-Smart, Jennifer Sandusky, Louis Hoffman and Toni Woodruff.
The show moved from group to group, demonstrating a wide range of material and versatility. The Bucknall Choir returned to sing several pieces, including an Irish folk song, a Schubert art song and a fun calypso number called “Shake the Papaya Down.”
Hoffman directed the Lower School Jazz Band, who appeared onstage multiple times, performing such tunes as “Tenor Madness” by Sonny Rollins and Charlie Parker’s “Now’s the Time.”
The first-year strings group performed “Can-Can” by Jacques Offenbach and the traditional song “Lightly Row,” while the first-year winds performed folk songs from the Australian, French and Czech peoples.
A special portion of the show was dedicated to student composers Paul Kratter, grade 4, and Jun Lin, grade 5. Kratter performed his piece, “The Crazy Dude,” on tenor saxophone, while Lin, a violinist, performed his piece, titled “Fight of the Fish,” with his mother, Sieun, on cello.
Lower school performing arts teacher Danny Dunn acted as technical director to make sure both the performers and the audience enjoyed a smooth run of the show.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
The middle school production of the punk-sci-fi musical “Starmites” took audiences on a wildly colorful romp through a young teenager’s imagination on May 10-11 at the Blackford Theater. This energetic, rock music-driven story centers on a teenager who retreats into a world of comic book characters who then set out on a journey to find a powerful musical instrument.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
For this year’s spring musical, the Harker Conservatory returned to a familiar favorite, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” directed by Laura Lang-Ree. “I’m so drawn to this story,” Lang- Ree noted. “It’s a perfect chance for our students to experience a true classic, with strong characters, amazing language and beautiful music.”
The huge upper school cast included several grade 5 students, all of whom gave splendid performances. Musical director Catherine Snider led the “Oklahoma!” band, whose interpretation of the beloved score provided the perfect backing for the talented singing and dancing actors.
The show earned eight nominations at the Bay Area High School Musical Theatre: Stage Top Honor Awards in early June, including best overall production and best chorus. The production took home wins in sound and choreography. Read all about it here! Hooray, cast and crew!
On May 24 at the Mexican Heritage Theater in San Jose, the graduating seniors in the Harker Conservatory certificate program performed selections from their senior portfolios at the 2013 Harker Conservatory Senior Showcase to an appreciative crowd of more than 500.
All 27 graduates of the program put on a diverse array of performances, from instrumental pieces to dance routines to reenactments of scenes from plays. The students have spent the previous four years in the program honing their talents in one of six fields offered by the certificate program.
Renee Tam, Apricot Tang and Michelle Christine Douglas, backed up by five friends,got the evening crowd going with their energetic dance performance to the Allstar Weekend song “Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
The show included several dramatic reenactments, including Alice Tsui’s performance of a monologue from Jessie McCormack’s comedy “Spine,” and Apurva Tandon delivering Lady Macbeth’s chilling “Out, out damned spot” speech from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth.”
As always, the musical talents of Harker’s Conservatory students were a treat, including vocalist Rebecca Liu’s stirring version of “Ave Maria” and Payal Modi singing the Kelly Clarkson hit “A Moment Like This,” in addition to the many great instrumental pieces from musicians such as Nayeon Kim, Katherine Woodruff and Albert Chen. Cecilia Lang-Ree’s jazzy number from the Broadway hit “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” came complete with backup dancers. Jazz, classical, pop and Broadway were all well-represented by this versatile group.
After the performances had concluded, the graduates lined up on stage and were called forward to receive their engraved plaques signaling successful completion of this intense arts program.
Congratulations to this year’s Conservatory graduates!
Instrumental Music: Tara Sheida Rezvani, Nayeon Kim, Katherine Woodruff, Albert Y. Chen, Wendy Shwe, Pooja Shah, Patricia Huang
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
A two-part show on May 3, titled “In Concert,” brought together all of the upper school vocal groups to ring in the summer and bid farewell to the graduating seniors and honor them for their dedication to Harker’s performing arts programs.
The first portion of the show was dedicated primarily to songs hailing from Great Britain and the countries that were part of its once-massive empire. Selections included Camerata’s performance of “Shoot False Love” by Thomas Morley; Cantilena closed the first portion of the show with their rendition of the Sting hit “Fields of Gold.”
Bel Canto kicked off the second part of the show with a pair of African folk songs and a medley of songs from Leonard Bernstein’s beloved score from “West Side Story.” Upper school show choir Downbeat concluded the concert, singing a variety of pop standards, including the poignant a cappella song by Billy Joel “And So It Goes.”
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Music lovers packed the Bucknall Theater on May 9 for a special performance by many of Harker’s youngest musicians, as several instrumental groups took the stage at the Spring Music Concert.
The show started fittingly enough with a performance of “The Harker School Song” by the Bucknall Choir, lower school orchestra and lower school string ensemble. The show moved from group to group, demonstrating a wide range of material and versatility. The Bucknall Choir returned to sing several pieces, including an Irish folk song, Schubert art song and a fun calypso number called “Shake the Papaya Down.”
The Lower School Jazz Band and first-year strings group performed a variety of catchy numbers and celebrated student composers.
This article was originally published in the summer 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Middle school singers sang about the ups and downs of being a kid at this year’s Spring Sing concert, titled “Just Kidding!” The show featured the grade 6 class and also featured middle school vocal groups Dynamics, Harmonics and Vivace, performing a series of songs about childhood from several famous Broadway musicals such as “Les Miserables,” “West Side Story” and “Hairspray.”
For the finale, all of the night’s singers stood together onstage to sing “Happiness” from “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown.”