Harrisburg Academy Blog

Tablets, iPads, and Slates – Oh My!

by Bob Bell Posted on May 15, 2012

Interest is very strong right now with using the current array of tablet computers in the classroom – both with the use of Apple’s iPad and, to a lesser degree, Android-based tablets. Many educators say they are finding success with these devices in the classroom, and we decided that it’s time to find out for ourselves.

About mid-February, using funds from a grant from the Seven Trees Foundation, two Apple iPads and two Samsung Galaxy Tab computers were placed in the hands of our third and fourth grade teachers, Mrs. Quigley, Mr. Leary, Mrs. Sherman and Mrs. Bender. The only instructions were to use them as they wished, and to pass along these instructions (and encouragements) to their students. We also provided a list of “functions” that we expected they could do or try with these devices, hoping that they would find these functions useful, and would then report back how well they performed.

During this evaluation time, the Tech team visited with the teachers on several occasions to answer questions, and provide tips and help as needed. At the end of the “pilot” period, the teachers participated in a feedback session to share their thoughts with the technology department and the lower school division head.

As expected, the tablet devices had all the attributes we had heard about – that also make them easy-to-use in a lower school classroom setting: light-weight, intuitive, long battery life – and they were fun and entertaining. They made good research tools, were good for reading e-books and were good for playing educational games. The Samsung had some minor advantages over the iPad, and the iPad had some minor advantages over the Samsung. Deficiencies were also noted – including the lack of anything that was acceptable as a substitute for MS Office, problems saving files and knowing where they were located at a later time, difficulty in collaboration, and problems printing.

Overall, the iPads and Galaxy tablets are fun and useful machines, but they are not regarded as useful enough for third and fourth grades to replace the need for more traditional laptop, netbook, and desktop computers. Having said that – we’ll keep our eyes and ears open, and look forward to running more tests and trials in the coming 20012-13 academic year to see how the technology – and our opinion on them – has changed.

Posted in At School, In the Classroom, Lower School | Tagged computers, ipad, tablets, technology | Leave a comment

Rose’s Top 12

by Jessica Warren Posted on May 8, 2012

This entry is taken from The Insider, Harrisburg Academy’s Upper School Newspaper, and is penned by guest author, Rose L. ’12, a graduating senior.

Senior year of high school is awkward. You are transitioning from one world into another, yet simultaneously you are seemingly still stuck in high school. Although there are many difficult moments during senior year, there is also time to take a moment and remember the good. For my final piece for the Academy Insider I will be honoring the year of my graduation – 2012 – by sharing with you a countdown of my top 12 favorite things that have happened during my time at Harrisburg Academy:

12. Continually making a fool of myself during morning meeting

11. Singing chorus songs in the halls and in whatever class was right after chorus

10. Enjoying the endless secret stash of snacks located in an undisclosed location near the lower cove

9. States Fair!!!

8. Creating a song about sedimentary rocks in 8th grade science class that (to this day) I still remember the words of

7. Being the starter for the 440 relay race on Field Day

6. Finally fulfilling my fantasy to sleep in a library amongst books during the senior lock-in

5. Finishing my Extended Essay

4. Convincing a teacher to invest in a pair of Chacos’ sandals

3. Watching the “Friday” parody over and over

2. Playing with the HATS kids in between exams during midterms and finals

…and…

1. Enjoying the moments when my peers can finish my sentences and almost read my mind

I will miss being here at Harrisburg Academy next year when I am in college because of the community that I have been a part of for the past ten years.

Peace,

Rose

(editor’s note: pictures of States Fair, Field Day, HATS kids, and so much more are available for viewing on our website and on our Facebook page – check ‘em out!)

Posted in Alumni, At School, Upper School | Tagged guest author, students | Leave a comment

Getting “Solar Ready”

by Jessica Warren Posted on May 5, 2012

Guest Author, David Herman, engineer and father of Peri K.’19

In a recent blog post, we outlined the Harrisburg Academy’s certification as an ENERGY STAR Building from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The road to ENERGY STAR certification began with the adoption of our recent strategic plan, Challenge 2013. The plan sets forth a goal to “green Harrisburg Academy by incorporating energy efficiency and environmental sustainability into programs and operations.” The goal statement begs the question, “What about solar energy (or other renewable energy sources)?”

As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, we evaluated the possibility of installing a solar energy (photovoltaic) plant to generate electricity for the Academy through a power purchase agreement. Through the power purchase agreement, a third party would install the solar energy plant and recoup their capital investment over the period of the agreement. Over the course of this evaluation, we determined that although it was not prudent to move to solar energy at that time, we realized the importance of getting “solar ready”. What does it mean for the Harrisburg Academy to get “solar ready”?

Getting “solar ready” involves identifying and taking proactive steps so that when a future opportunity presents to move to solar power or another renewable form of energy the Harrisburg Academy will be best positioned to make that transition.

Reduce electrical load and consumption: First, the most sustainable energy is energy not used. One of the key steps to getting “solar ready” is to reduce electricity load and consumption. Last summer marked the culmination of a series of capital projects to reduce the Harrisburg Academy’s electricity load and consumption. These projects included replacing inefficient lighting and electric heating units with more efficient units.

Improve the physical plant: On first look, the building’s roofs are ideally suited for photovoltaic panels. However, after evaluation, several roofs will require replacement in the near term and certainly before installation of solar panels. The replacement of these roofs is included in the Academy’s capital plan.

Evaluate power purchasing options: Electricity pricing has been volatile since electricity rate caps expired December 31, 2009. The Academy purchases electricity through a buying group that is able to best leverage the fluctuations in the marketplace. One of the advantages of the power purchase agreement is to decrease exposure to the volatility of electricity prices and improve budgeting. However, before entering into a long-term agreement, the marketplace needs to be more stable to ensure the rate locked in through the power purchase agreement is competitive.

We are committed to the environmental sustainability of the Harrisburg Academy and will continue to evaluate options and alternatives going forward.

Posted in At School | Leave a comment

The Role of Coaches: A Greater Purpose

by Jessica Warren Posted on May 3, 2012

Guest Author, John Martin, Middle School Athletics Director at Harrisburg Academy and Head Coach of the Youth Lacrosse and Girls MS Basketball teams

After the beloved Penn State football coach Joe Paterno passed away earlier this year, it was clear that he was more than a football coach to his players. Penn State football players and supporters looked at Coach Paterno as a mentor, friend, and in some cases, as the father figure they never had. After realizing what this man meant to his players and the university, I started to reflect on how much of an impact my coaches had on me throughout my playing days. Sure, my coaches taught me the X’s and O’s of football, but it was the other actions they took that I will truly remember.

One of the fondest memories I have of my head football coach was during a time when I had missed a practice because of family issues. I was worried that he would be upset with me for being absent. When I went back to practice the next day, I was taken back by his reaction – instead of scolding me, he put his arm around me. He told me he understood the situation and that if I needed anything he was there for me. His actions in that moment meant more to me than what he taught me in three years on the football field. I will forever be grateful for his compassion and understanding in a difficult situation.

As coaches, our role is much bigger than teaching a sport and winning. Our greatest purpose is for players to know they have someone who cares about them and all their successes. Players need to feel secure and know they have someone to talk with when times are hard .When coaches take this approach players will give all that they have for their coach. Coaches, remember to value the person more than the player.

Posted in At School | Leave a comment

Letting go…

by Virginia Getz Posted on April 11, 2012

It soon will be time to say good-bye to our seniors here at Harrisburg Academy. The class of 2012 will head out on May 14th to take their places in their chosen internships. Some will try their hand as a gardener, pastry chef, equestrian, writer, music maker, designer, or photographer; while others will help and observe professionals in medicine, law, government, entertainment, education, advocacy, business or finance.

The opportunity to “try on” something new and different will be exciting, challenging and hopefully a lot of fun, too! The seniors deserve this; it is a part of their reward for working hard, for doing great things, and for becoming almost grown-ups. The time has come, but it is still hard to let them go. They will be back for a short time to report on their experiences and for the official ceremonies marking the completion of their primary education; but for all intents and purposes, they will have moved on.

Their pending departure stirs the emotions – sadness, excitement, pride, trepidation, joy, and relief; accompanied by an urge to separate, and a desire to hold on. We have to let them go, of course, that is our job after all, to prepare them for college and then open the door to the world and let them walk out. I know they are prepared, and certainly ready, but watching them leave will be difficult.

The reasons they are ready to go, are the same reasons I want them to stay. There are no two alike, they know who they are now, and they are proud of it. They have worked hard together, and as individuals, to maintain their high standards and to hone their skills and many talents. They accept differences, but not apathy. They are passionate, quiet, loud, stubborn, messy, and they care deeply about being their best. They are becoming better communicators and advocates, both for themselves and for one another.

Yes, they are ready. And yes – I will miss them.

Posted in Alumni, At School, On Parenting, Upper School | Tagged graduation, seniors | Leave a comment

Inspired Education: Thoughts from an Academy Parent

by Jessica Warren Posted on March 23, 2012

By Grace Lightner, Early Childhood parent (of Leilani ’24), Guest Blogger

Author's Day in Mrs. Nease's Kindergarten Class

In the first few conversations we had with teachers and faculty at Harrisburg Academy, my husband and I could see how sincerely passionate they were about what they do every day. The pride they had about the Academy was undeniable. Their commitment and attitude brought out a level of excitement in us that we were not quite expecting – and one that made the decision to enroll our daughter an easy one.

Being an Academy parent for the past two school years has shown us just where this passion comes from. Harrisburg Academy is not just a school that provides quality education, it is also an inspiring community of teachers, staff, students, parents, and administrators that all care deeply about independent education and the well-being of their students. In just these two short years, our daughter has flourished in ways we never would have imagined. She reads amazingly well, teaches us Spanish, shares her art projects, and can play the violin. But most importantly she loves her school, her teachers and she loves learning. Now, and with no effort whatsoever, whenever we have an opportunity to tell someone about Harrisburg Academy, we do it with the same sincere passion and excitement that initially drew us into this amazing community.

In thinking about what we love most about Harrisburg Academy, it has to be the teachers. Most have worked there for many years and yet the passion for creating an interesting learning experience for the students (and parents too!) burns as intensely as if it were ignited just months ago. I have had the joy of witnessing her teachers in action on multiple occasions and I am continually amazed at how much energy they have and how naturally they make learning new things so exciting to their students. The teachers encourage kindness, awareness, leadership, curiosity, responsibility and respect – all the while teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic! It is such a great feeling to have 110% trust in the teachers and to hear the same level of admiration and trust directly from our daughter when she talks about them.

I cannot imagine an educational community that is a better fit for our goals, for our daughter, and for her education than Harrisburg Academy.

Posted in Accolades, At School, Early Childhood, In the Classroom | Tagged Early Childhood, educational journey, individual attention, writing | Leave a comment

Connections Partnered with Flexibility Enhance School Experiences!

by Kevin Muirhead Posted on March 16, 2012

Michael Boudewyns, the storyteller / actor who recently visited Harrisburg Academy.

Last week, Michael Boudewyns, a wonderful storyteller/actor, performed for our Early Childhood and Lower School students here at school. Although our guest was spectacular, performances like his are not unique and happen all of the time in schools across the country. What was unique about this circumstance — and proves time and again to be a valuable advantage for smaller school communities like Harrisburg Academy — was its logistics.

First, we heard about the opportunity to have this performer come to the school through a former parent who is affiliated with the Harrisburg Symphony. Boudewyns was scheduled to perform with the symphony later in the month and had asked the group to facilitate opportunities to perform in local schools, both to promote the symphony event and to give back to the local community. The former parent suggested the Academy as a performance location and catalyzed getting this wonderful, free event in front of our students. Clearly connections help!

The second unique aspect of this event was our school’s ability to adjust multiple schedules to accommodate it … especially on less than a day’s notice! As head of the program, I received a call from the former parent around noon on Wednesday, queried the teachers as to an appropriate time for the performance and their availability on Thursday, arranged the use of McCormick Auditorium, confirmed the time and place that afternoon with the symphony, and was able to enjoy Michael’s stellar performance with almost 200 Early Childhood and Lower School students at 10 a.m. on Thursday morning. Not many schools can affect such adaption on such short notice! Flexibility can and does clearly enhance school experiences, and we, at the Academy, enjoy having this luxury.

Posted in Arts & Performance, At School, Early Childhood, In the Classroom, Lower School | Tagged flexibility, performance, small school setting | Leave a comment

Working “In the Cloud”

by Bob Bell Posted on March 14, 2012

Cloud computing, much like Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT), is a major “enabling” resource for educational evolution here at Harrisburg Academy. Many of the newest teaching methods with a basis in differentiated learning involve the use of various creative forms of technology to help foster critical thinking.

Creative uses of computers are not new. Since computers were first available to our students in 1997, teachers have asked students to write papers, make charts and graphs, and design the occasional PowerPoint presentation, tasks that didn’t always help the full group understand the material. In the last five years, however, rich media applications have emerged that extend student and teacher possibilities for touching multiple senses and helping to bring many differentiated learning concepts to reality.

Until a few years ago, it was sufficient to provide simple, local file storage for students to support the papers and charts they were required to create. Unfortunately, our local file storage facility started looking woefully inadequate as rich media applications began to appear, students began to need offsite access to their files, and creative project collaboration between students outside of the classroom became the norm. Fortunately, two big players stepped up with solutions: Google Docs and MS Live @ Edu. Google Docs creates a collaborative work environment where users can save a document, instantly share it with other users, and edit it at the same time. I think this was the critical point where people started to understand what the term “In the Cloud” meant. Just the ability to store something on the internet, gain access to it — at any time, from anywhere, and with any machine — and control shared access to it without enlisting IT department help was a revolutionary concept in itself.

The Harrisburg Academy Tech Team followed these developments, but was not yet ready to commit to a change. Since 1997, Microsoft Office has been viewed as the industry standard, and we thought a complete switch to Google Docs was too big of a change too soon. But in the spring of 2010, Microsoft released “MS Live @ EDU.” This combined the internet-based file storage and sharing capabilities of Google Docs with a rudimentary web-based email system and MS Office Suite. I tested the product throughout the summer of 2010 and found that although the Word, Excel, and PowerPoint web apps were a bit rough around the edges, they were a suitable option. There was little not to like.

When school started his past fall, every student was given a free MS Live @ EDU account with 25GB of storage in the cloud (SkyDrive), an increase from their former paltry 100MB on our server. Our students now have universal access to and control of their data. Furthermore, this has far more potential to support the storage needs of the new, rich content-creation apps that we see being developed and released every day.

Without the MS Live @ EDU cloud environment, our BYOT program would have been much more difficult to implement. It really helped us maintain our philosophy of anytime, anywhere, any machine student computing. I look forward to seeing increased capabilities with the new Microsoft Windows 8 Operating System and its enhanced integration with MS Live @ EDU.

Posted in At School, Early Childhood, In the Classroom, Lower School, Middle School, Upper School | Tagged Cloud BYOT BYOD Google Docs MSLive@EDU MSOffice Skydrive Creative | Leave a comment

100 Days ’til Graduation Celebration

by George Gonzales Posted on March 9, 2012

Members of the Class of 2012 enjoy a tasty fiesta to celebrate 100 days until graduation!

There are several commonalities that all members of the senior class display at this time of the school year. Without question, the warm weather, anticipation of graduating, excitement of going to college, and enjoyment of knowing that in a few months all day-to-day decisions will be in their hands have all students — especially seniors —distracted, to say the least. If you were to analyze these characteristics, you would come up with a simple diagnosis… commonly known as “senioritis!”

With the end of the school year in view, the Alumni Office and the senior class pooled their thoughts and organized “100 Days ’til Graduation,” an event held on Feb. 29, 2012. The fiesta-style celebration, complete with enchiladas, fajitas, churros, and several tasty side dishes, celebrated the energetic group of college-bound students and gave them another opportunity cherish time together. They are all starting to realize that their days at Harrisburg Academy are about to end, and a world of new, challenging experiences are about to unfold.

The students consumed several helpings of food as T-shirts displaying the “100 Days ’til Graduation” logo (designed by Alex W. ’12) were distributed to each senior. The reaction was typical of any high school student receiving an unexpected gift. Some students tried them on, while others chose to sign their friends’ shirts with their names and well-wishes.

As any fantastic fiesta should end, the group tried their hand at breaking a piñata, swinging back and forth as blindfolded seniors did their best to dislodge the pounds of candy trapped inside. The following day, the senior class was permitted to their own dress down day (wearing their new shirts, of course!) in celebration of the milestone.

Posted in Alumni, At School, Upper School | Tagged celebration, Class of 2012, fiesta, seniors | Leave a comment