THE PULSE | FALL 2024 ISSUE ¡BIENVENIDOS, DOCTORA RYAN!
HARVEY’S NEWEST
COMMON GROUND By Logan Kreisberg
To any juniors and seniors walking around school and wondering why herds of first-years are clumped together with them at various places on campus, you are probably witnessing the genesis of Harvey’s newest class. Common Ground is a required interdisciplinary course for ninth graders to understand their place in their communities and the world. This class is taught by a wide range of faculty across departments, and it combines multiple academic disciplines together. According to Harvey’s Upper School course catalog, “Through elements of science, literature, the arts, and history, this nature-centered course provides students with the opportunity to experience, question, and create.” The Pulse reached out to all eight faculty members currently teaching the course to gain a better understanding of Common Ground’s curriculum. According to Mr. Saltz, “This class is important because it combines English, art, and science, and it is taught by three teachers who have different styles but a shared goal and shared values.” Additionally, Mr. Saltz said this class is unique to Harvey because the course “makes a concerted effort to create a sense of fellowship amongst students and also a sense of connection within the school itself in a physical way.
By Daniela Rynott
The curriculum fosters a sense of community by taking advantage of Harvey’s surroundings. It is common in the class for teachers to assign individual or group coursework that relates to observations the students make during the school day. For example, on a trip to Westmoreland Sanctuary, first-years learned about orienteering with maps and compasses while hiking across the nature preserve.
Image of a Common Ground class in action! Taken by Alison Nokes.
The class has also been a hit among teachers. Art teacher Ms. Nokes shared, “As a teacher of Common Ground, I get to work closely with two colleagues each day. I am not alone in the art classroom. Instead, I am trying to find connections or new ways of doing things that can highlight ways that art interacts with other subjects.” Ms. Nokes also conveyed her enjoyment of bouncing ideas off her coteachers. “I get to see the ways they think about how to plan the class periods, which enriches my teaching life.”
“¡Hola, clase!” is what students hear when they walk into the classroom. Dr. Lily Ryan, Harvey’s new Spanish teacher, emphasizes the importance of Spanish greetings, a recurring theme on exams. Although it is her first year at Harvey, Dr. Ryan has much previous teaching experience. During her time as an assistant professor of Spanish at Penn State, Dr. Ryan delved into modern Latin American film and media studies, with a specific focus on auteur movies. Coming from that large educational institution, she was excited to join Harvey’s interactive community, where teachers have strong connections with students. Dr. Ryan received her undergraduate Spanish and Latin American Studies degree from New York University. During her junior year of college, she studied abroad in Buenos Aires and later spent her summers in Mexico City during graduate school.
Dr. Lily Ryan with her dog, Tommy. Taken by Grace O’Brien.
CONT. ON PAGE 4
PAGE P A G E 11
THE HARVEY SCHOOL | 260 JAY STREET, KATONAH NY
CONT. ON PAGE 4