![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Athena moving to Schoology platform next year
Harker will replace its Athena2 website with athena.harker.org, which will use the Schoology platform, next year. This website is live now, with students enrolled in their current courses.
“If teachers want to try using it a little bit this semester, they could bring in material that they have in their Moodle courses in Athena2,” Diane Main, Upper School Director of Learning, Innovation and Design, said. “But everyone will begin using it in the new school year.”
Schoology will replace Moodle, the learning management system (LMS) currently used to power Athena2. Medha Shah (10) commented on Athena2 and its predecessor, Athena.
“I’ve used the previous previous Athena before, and I thought that one was messed up, so the Athena2 was a really good step up from that,” Medha said. “I think right now it’s fine because it’s pretty organized and you can see all the courses that you’re enrolled in.”
K-12 Director of Learning, Innovation and Design and Director of Information Technology Service and Support Daniel Hudkins discussed the move to Athena2 from Athena.
“When [Moodle] went from version 1.x to 2.x there was a major overhaul of the underlying engine, and we couldn’t move from the old site, from the older version to the new version without completely reconstituting the site,” Hudkins said. “In order to leave the archives available for teachers and also to permit piloting at the same time, we started Athena2.”
Main discussed reasons for the upcoming move away from Athena2 and the Moodle platform.
“We did have some faculty members who weren’t really using Athena2 very much, partly because the interface was not super intuitive,” Main said. “We considered finding some way to basically skin Moodle to add a better interface, but we found that that was going to be cost-prohibitive.”
Schoology contains calendar and gradebook systems, but Main said that Harker will continue to primarily use PCR for those functions.
“The way our gradebook and assessment calendar feeds into our student information system, which are both PCR, we couldn’t have people not using it because then the grades wouldn’t exist in the official gradebook,” Main said.
Main discussed features of Schoology: a Facebook-like activity feed displays new information for student courses, and a groups function as a way to organize clubs and other non-class organizations on campus.
Athena2 will remain in use for the rest of this school year.
Praveen Batra (9) is a reporter for the Winged Post. He enjoys informative writing, design, and typography. In his spare time, he likes to write mobile...