A new contingent of visiting students arrived from Tokyo’s Tamagawa Gakuen last month, again experiencing the rich life of Harker students firsthand.
The 25 visiting high school students were on a nationwide tour of colleges, and took time out of their hectic schedules to tour Harker’s lower and uppe rschool campuses. They observed classes, spent time at college counseling and joined the junior class on an Eagle Buddies outing.
“The college tour was the first trip of its kind made by Tamagawa. They were visiting Stanford so decided they needed to come see us as well,” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s director of global education.
The Tamagawa teens were warmly escorted throughout the day by volunteer Harker students, including freshmen, juniors and seniors. They arrived in the morning and split up into two groups, one going to visit college counseling, the other observing such varied classes as theater, economics, English and Japanese. Then they regrouped as a team to join Harker juniors on a visit with their Eagle Buddies at the lower school.
“This was especially fun for them to observe, especially since they got to see the kids all dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day. They enjoyed watching them play various games and asked lots of questions about what the younger students were doing,” recalled Walrod.
After enjoying an outdoor lunch there, they returned to the upper school to finish class observations and visiting college counseling. Both Tamagawa teachers and students alike voiced how impressed they were at how many Harker students and teachers spoke Japanese.
Harker’s tradition of combining the latest technology with education continues as strongly as ever. Dozens of Harker middle school students have been participating in a pen pal exchange with the Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Astana, Kazakhstan, over the past few months, through a connection courtesy of Harker alumna Lauren Gutstein ’06, who is currently teaching English at the school.
On Feb. 7, the students video conferenced with their Kazakhstani buddies, and were able to interact face-to-face for the first time. The students participated in a question and answer session, as well as a fun show-and-tell, where both groups of students showed current trends, fashions, games and talents. The conference concluded with Harker students teaching their Kazakh friends some American slang, and with the Kazakh students teaching Russian and Kazakh words and slang in return.
What a day of crosscultural learning and connecting!
Grade 6 students traveled to Yosemite in late October for a chance to see and hike through one of the world’s most famous and scenic national parks. Thanks to the clear weather, the students were able to enjoy the park’s natural beauty with little interruption. Clear skies gave way to a wonderful view of the Milky Way, and the travelers were greeted during their many hikes with brisk, fresh air.
Landmarks visited during the trip included the Spider Caves, Vernal Falls, Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point. It was also a bittersweet trip for some, as the students met with and bid goodbye to their Tamagawa buddies, who they will see in the spring when they visit Japan.
The anticipated meeting between several grade 6 students and their buddies from Tokyo’s Tamagawa Gakuen took place on Oct. 18, when global education director Jennifer Walrod picked up the Tamagawa students from the San Francisco airport and took them to Half Moon Bay. There, they enjoyed lunch on the beach with their Harker buddies, whom they met in person for the first time.
The following day, the Tamagawa buddies observed classes and went on a scavenger hunt with their Harker friends. In the evening, the students all enjoyed a special dinner at Nichols Hall at the upper school campus, where they got to see a dance performance and watched a magic show by well-known Bay Area magician Jay Alexander.
Other activities for the rest of the week included a trip to Crissy Field in San Francisco, a visit to the lower school for an origami project with lower school students and a Halloween art project during a special assembly.
After spending the weekend with their Harker buddies, the Tamagawa students took a separate bus to Yosemite, where they met again this week for one last time before the Harker students head to Japan in the spring.
The annual grade 8 trip to China was once again a fun-filled and enlightening experience for all. After arriving on May 29, the students did some sightseeing around the Shanghai area, visiting such places as the Oriental Pearl TV tower.
The next day, the students met with their friends at the World Foreign Language Middle School (WFLMS), where they took part in an assembly at which student Neil Sadhu gave a brief speech about the student exchange between the two schools. During their visit to the school, Harker students participated in a number of classes, including Chinese opera, where they made their own opera masks. They also learned about traditional Chinese musical instruments and had the chance to play them after watching the WFLMS students perform. Following lunch, the students visited the World Expo China exhibition, and that evening they viewed an amazing acrobat show.
Next on the itinerary was a visit to Zhujiajiao, the water town known for its canals and historic buildings dating back 1,700 years. Several students bought live fish and turtles that were released into the water to symbolize good luck.
After shopping and a scenic boat ride, the students then returned to WFLMS to watch the school’s P.E. classes and take part in a tug-of-war as well as several other sports with the Chinese students.
On May 31, everyone headed to the Yuyuan Gardens in downtown Shanghai to see the breathtaking Chinese architecture from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The students marveled at the ornate decorations of the gardens as they were led through the many pathways.
Back at WFLMS, the Harker students attended shadow boxing and painting classes, and learned how to use an abacus.
The students said goodbye to their buddies the next morning and hopped on a plane to Beijing. There, they visited the Temple of Heaven, which the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties visited annually to offer prayers for a good harvest. Next, they explored the hutongs, Beijing’s traditional alleyways, riding on rickshaws to the house of a man who allowed the students to take a tour of his home. The man graciously answered many of the students’ questions about his life and thoughts on a variety of subjects. Before leaving his home, he advised the students to appreciate all that they have in their lives.
The next stage of the trip saw the students leaving Beijing for the Ming Tombs. On the way, they visited a jade factory to learn more about the stone and see some of the items being made. Upon arriving at the tombs, the students couldn’t resist taking photos of the statues that lined the famous “spirit way.” They were led to the dragon-headed turtle pavilion, where they rubbed the statue’s tail for a long life, and its head for continued happiness.
The group’s next major stop was none other than the Great Wall of China. “We took a ski lift to the top of the mountain where we could enter onto the wall. It was amazing!” said Jennifer Walrod, Harker’s global education director. “It was a clear sunny day, and we could see for miles.” Many photos were taken of the renowned structure, and the students were thrilled to take a toboggan ride down the side of the mountain.
A dinner of Peking duck was enjoyed that evening, and the students were treated to a “Legend of Kung Fu” show, featuring graceful and skilled dancers.
The group arrived back in Beijing the next day and began “a busy and long day full of sightseeing,” wrote Walrod in one of several dispatches to parents. In the morning, they visited Tiananmen Square and spoke of the 1989 protests and ensuing military action. They next headed to the Forbidden City, where they were guided through several of its 980 palatial buildings.
After enjoying lunch, the students went to the Silk Street, a shopping center where they could exercise their haggling skills with its many vendors. “We left the place carrying bags filled with our loot,” Walrod wrote. Later, the group arrived at the Summer Palace, China’s largest imperial garden, and rode a dragon boat to the palace’s pavilion. There, they enjoyed ice cream and viewed the paintings on the roof of the covered walkway.
The students arrived safely back home on June 6, ready to rest and reflect on a trip they won’t soon forget.
Upper school music teacher Chris Florio traveled to Japan in October as this year’s exchange teacher to Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo. While there, he helped prepare Tamagawa’s middle and upper school bands for national competitions. Both bands took top honors.
“I got to be there for all the hype that led up to it,” Florio said. “I got to work with them a lot, conduct them almost every day.”
The two groups both performed American music at the competition, and Florio’s understanding of American music, particularly jazz, proved vital in helping them perform at their best.
“One piece was very jazz-heavy, so I helped them find a more appropriate jazz feel,” he recalled. “They’re not really jazz players. They’re classical musicians, so that’s always tough, but they responded so quickly and amazingly.”
Certain English words also presented some difficulty, such as when one section instructed the brass players to “wail.”
“As a jazz musician in America you might understand what that means,” Florio said, “but it took me days, actually, to figure out how to explain that one.”
After spending so much time teaching students at Tamagawa, Florio took to heart some principles that he hopes to instill in students at Harker. “I noticed how much [Tamagawa students] worked with the metronome during rehearsals. I started doing that and the kids responded really well.”
He also played some recordings of the Tamagawa upper school band for his students, and noticed that “the kids are practicing on their own more.”
In addition, Florio’s work with the band did not end with his Tamagawa trip. Some time during the school year, he wants to hold a video conference between Tamagawa’s band and the upper school orchestra, and have them play for one another and offer feedback. Two students from Tamagawa’s upper school band will also be visiting as exchange students in January.
Aside from teaching, Florio also went on many fun outings with his new friends at Tamagawa, and also visited Kyoto for two days. “They work very hard, but no matter what age the teacher, they have a lot of fun,” he said. “They made me feel like one of their teachers.”
A dozen educators from various educational institutes in Taiwan visited Harker in late October to learn more about Harker’s administration, college admissions preparation process and test preparation efforts.
After Nan Nielsen, director of admission, provided a tour of the upper school campus, the delegates from universities, high schools and the Ministry of Education of Taiwan met with Evan Barth, upper school dean of studies, to learn more about exam preparation and college acceptances. “My repeated answer was that we don’t really teach to the test here,” Barth said in response to questions about how Harker assists students in preparing for standardized tests. “We teach the academics and the preparation just comes.” Barth also offered them insight into the college application process, which entails meeting with students to set up an appropriate academic plan and talking to the college counselors.
Later that morning, Chris Daren, journalism teacher, and Samantha Hoffman, grade 10 and global editor for the Winged Post, offered insight into the journalism program and other extracurricular activities that are offered on campus. “I think they saw a school where students are trying to be well-rounded, and we have much to offer our student body to enhance their high school experience,” said Daren.
Taiwan delegates included representatives from National Chung Cheng University, Taipei Municipal Zhongzheng Senior High School, National Tsing Hua University, Lawrence S. Ting School, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, National Taichung First Senior High School and the Department of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. This visit was one of many visits to high schools, including Gunn High School and Fremont High School, in the Silicon Valley.
This semester, Julia Lambertz of Germany is not only attending Harker as a junior, she is playing on the girls volleyball team, too. Julia discovered Harker through the organization international Experience (iE), which coordinates exchanges between high schools.
Lambertz has been busy with her volleyball and class schedule (which includes Spanish, psychology, sculpture and U.S. history), plus there have been a number of outings with the family of her host student, Neda Ghaffarian, grade 11. So far, they have toured San Francisco, Monterey and Santa Cruz, with possible plans to visit Los Angeles for Thanksgiving and a vacation at Lake Tahoe during Christmas. Lambertz also visited kindergarten classes to give students a brief lesson on the German language and culture.
Since arriving at Harker, Lambertz has noticed several differences between the lifestyles of students in the U.S. and Germany. “There are no spirit events in my German school and the school is not like a big community there,” she said. In addition, high school students in Germany don’t take finals at the end of the semester. Instead, they take exams at the end of their high school careers that cover the previous 13 years of study. Students also favor biking, walking or public transit instead of driving.
Bridging the gap between cultures, visual arts teacher Elizabeth Saltos recently went to one of Harker’s sister schools, Shanghai World Foreign Language Middle School SWFLMS), for two weeks to teach and tour the country.
In a reflection written on WFLMS’ website, she said the school was impressive: “It’s no wonder this school is a sister school to Harker. The programs seem parallel in academic quality rigor.”
Outside of classes, Saltos toured the water town Zhujiajiao, visited museums with fellow teachers and attended a tomb sweeping festival, which is a traditional Chinese holiday where families honor ancestors. She was enamored by the architecture and appreciated the downtime she spent in the gardens and parks sketching.
Some of Harker’s most unique offerings are those of the global education department. While the many exchange programs are well-known, they are just the tip of the iceberg, explains Jennifer Abraham, director of global education.
The program has, especially in recent years, begun a transition to much more of an academic focus. In addition to student and teacher exchanges, the department sponsors cultural and curricular exchanges. “Through the variety of exchange programs, Harker students will become better world citizens,” said Abraham. The global education department hopes that “by nurturing these meaningful relationships between young people across various continents, we have the ability to create lasting understanding between the future leaders of the world,” she added.
There are exchanges on all three campuses for students in all grade levels. Harker has sister schools in Japan, China, Russia, India, Australia, Costa Rica, Spain, Thailand, Ethiopia, Switzerland, France and Saudi Arabia.
Programs for the lower school focus on teaching students about the similarities and differences between students around the world. Through a variety of activities students learn from each other about their respective countries and cultures. Kindergarten, second and third grade students work with students at the Tamagawa Gakuen School in Tokyo to learn more about each other before the exchange program that occurs in Gr. 6.
Second graders work with students from Saudi Arabia and Australia in the Mascot Project. The schools exchange stuffed animal mascots, and throughout the year communicate with one another about the adventures of the visiting mascots as they travel with students around the Bay Area and beyond. For example, the Harker eagle that traveled to Saudi Arabia had many adventures “including making tea, dressing in traditional Saudi clothing and attending school,” says Abraham.
Students at the middle school participate in email exchanges, forum discussion groups, and video conferencing with schools in Tokyo, Shanghai, Costa Rica, France and Australia. Regan Heslop, Gr. 6, participated in this year’s video conferences with Shanghai students. “We talked about the environment and global warming,” she said. “It was cool to be able to ask them questions about school and life in Shanghai.”
One of the longest running – over 15 years – and most popular middle school programs is the student exchange with sister school Tamagawa in Tokyo. The students collaborate across the world on environmental and computer science projects in e-mail exchanges and video conferences. Each year a group of students from each school crosses the ocean to spend 10 days in the others’ country, including a four-night stay with a host family. Many of the students renew friendships in Gr. 8 when groups from both schools meet in Washington, D.C.
Those students who are enrolled in advanced French language classes exchange letters and packages with students from
Institution Sevigne, Harker’s sister school in France. These packages often include items such as “yearbooks, school newspapers and teen magazines,” said Abraham.
Students in advanced art do a landscape project and post pictures of their work to an online gallery. Students then are able to view photos of their peers’ art and leave comments. Programs such as these help students to learn more about the people of another country than textbooks can ever teach.
During February, middle school students video conference with peers from around the world. Since 2003, Gr. 8 students have video-conferenced with their counterparts from the World Foreign Language Middle School in Shanghai. Topics of their conversations include population growth and its impact on the environment. These talks culminate in an exchange program, which according to Abraham was the “first of its kind between a U.S. middle school and the People’s Republic of China, garnering significant international media attention.”
Upper school students continue the relationship with sister school Tamagawa through exchanges and foreign language work. Last summer seven upper school students traveled to Japan to learn more about that country’s culture. As part of the trip they visited with buddies from Tamagawa and stayed with their families for the weekend. David Wu, Gr. 11, said that he viewed the trip as a huge learning experience and that he “learned a lot about myself, Japanese culture and Japanese girls.”
Last summer, 10 seniors were also on a trip to Costa Rica. Students worked with endangered sea turtles in an effort to learn more about their reproductive habits. “The objective of the trip was to immerse students in field research so they could experience first-hand the excitement of discovery with the challenges of conducting research in the wilderness,” said Anita Chetty, upper school science department chair.
After experiencing some difficulties with her research project, Adrienne Wong, Gr. 12, said the trip “taught me that not everything always goes your way and the solution is not to give up but to find another way to achieve your goals.”
The trip focused on a variety of educational areas including biology, Spanish and computer science. In addition to offerings for students, there also exist programs for Harker’s teachers. These exchange programs provide our educators a means to learn about teaching techniques and styles from throughout the world. This includes exchange programs with schools in Switzerland, Japan and Australia.
Upper school psychology teacher Naomi Schatz traveled to Saint Stephen’s College, Harker’s sister school in Australia. At one point she gave a lecture about sport psychology which she said touched on “performance anxiety, overcoming adversity, fear of injury, goal setting, confidence and self-talk.”
She hopes that students will take these lessons and apply them in the classroom as well. Around the same time Sue Muir, a math teacher from Saint Stephen’s, visited Harker and, in addition to observing several upper school math classes, did some team teaching with math teacher Gabriele Stahl.
Overall, the programs offered by the global education department offer our students unparalleled access to their peers around the world. This exposure plays a huge role in the school’s goal of creating well-rounded global citizens. Rather than teaching our students about foreign cultures only through textbooks, Harker is committed to providing an interesting, dynamic and first-hand set of experiences that are invaluable as our students grow into world citizens.