In May Harker received a visit from Sue Muir, upper school advanced level math teacher from St. Stephen’s College in Australia. A teacher for 33 years, Muir was on a sixmonth sabbatical from teaching, which all teachers at St. Stephen’s college get to do after seven years of service. She spent her first week observing all of Harker’s US math classes, and also did a lot of team teaching with US math teacher Gabriele Stahl.

“Sue and I had very fruitful conversations about the material,” Stahl said. “Whenever we started a new method we got together before and talked it through. We found out that our teaching styles were very similar. Sue came up with a few worksheets for the students.”

Added Stahl: “Sue adjusted very easily to Harker and I believe she had a lot of fun, too.”

Muir spent a day visiting Rob Regan’s Gr. 5 world geography class, where she talked to the kids about Australian culture. She also spent a day on the MS campus to observe teachers in class, and met with Vandana Kadam, math teacher, to discuss the possibility of St. Stephen’s joining the Harker Math Invitational as well as collaborating on a math exchange. “Sue was highly impressed with the advanced level of math our students do,” said Jennifer Abraham, global education director.