As the third Biology and Physiology teacher this year, Mr. Kangataran joined the faculty Feb. 16 and received warm applause and even some cheers at the next day’s Town Hall.

Mr. Kangataran moved to Los Angeles a year ago to pursue a career in indie rock music.  His album launched, titled Sean Kangataran, was launched in Ireland in 2010, after which he spent a couple of years playing shows all across Europe. Here in Los Angeles, he has performed in such notable places as the Viper Room and Bubley’s East, both lounges located in West Hollywood.

Students who heard his songs after finding out they could be downloaded were thrilled, and could be seen playing his music from their laptops during lunch and free periods all throughout school.

However, he also has a strong background in both science and teaching, all in his native Ireland. After studying anatomy and zoology at the National University of Ireland in Galway, Mr. Kangataran went on to teach anatomy, physiology, and neurology to medical students there for about four years.

Mr. Kangataran has a clear love for both endeavors.

“I’m incredibly passionate about music and work really, really hard, but I also like learning,” said Mr. Kangataran, 31, in a Thursday interview in one of the school’s conference rooms.

“Teaching is one of the greatest challenges because you have to understand the subject so well that you can explain it in several different styles because everybody receives information differently,” he continued. ”I’d get bored if I wasn’t studying and learning.”

It’s been a tough six weeks for Science Department chair Dr. Jay Smallwood, who is new himself this year.  First Ms. Mari Rosales resigned unexpectedly on New Year’s Day to enroll in nursing school. Her replacement, Dr. Katya Gudis, arrived Jan. 30 and was gone by Feb. 13.

Dr. Smallwood is optimistic about the newest recruit.

“I think the main thing is that he is very open and engaging to the students,” said Dr. Smallwood. “It’s been a long month-and-a-half but it’s over now. I’m looking forward to welcoming Mr. Kangataran and seeing everyone grow.”

Mr. Kangataran doesn’t see performing music and teaching science as that different.

“They are actually quite similar,” Mr. Kangataran said. “You are standing up in front of people, delivering something. It’s not worlds of difference.

“This is actually why I think I’ll fit in well with in Shalhevet — I don’t think the kids here are encouraged to only be one thing or to only express one side of themselves”.

Though in the past he taught an older crowd – the medical students in Ireland ranged in age from 17 to 35 — he doesn’t expect transitioning to high schoolers to be much of a challenge.

“It’s not that weird — I don’t see the students here as being that much younger anyways,” Mr. Kangataran said. “The students here are very mature, very educated, and very ambitions.”

After his first day teaching at Shalhevet, Mr. Kangataran had only good things to say.

“The students here are funny — there’s a great energy, they’re very, very friendly, and very curious minds,” Mr. Kangataran said. “All of them appear very keen to just learn.”

The students seemed to reciprocate his enthusiasm. Many commented that he was organized and passionate.

“He seems very intelligent, and within the first few moments of class he started developing a course syllabus to help us all stay on top of the work,” said senior Phyiology student Yossi Halpert. “I can tell he loves what he’s doing. I have high hopes for the future of the class.”

Though he hasn’t lived in Los Angeles for long, Mr. Kangataran said the different environment had already affected  his music.

“The record I made before was a big, sad, break-up record,” he said of his first album. “It was all very miserable and dark. Then I came here and had way too much fun. My music is now a lot more upbeat.”

On the other hand, Mr. Kangataran had a sad story to tell about how he first got into music.

“I’m self-taught, and I actually only started playing music when I was 23,” Mr. Kangataran began. “A friend of mine who was a great musician passed away in a very tragic accident. I just started learning his songs because they meant a lot to me, and he meant a lot to me. I didn’t actually know I could sing until I was 23, and I tried and I could.”

When asked which song off his record was his favorite, Mr. Kangataran took a moment until he ultimately chose “Burn it all,” which he said was about the strength needed to let go when things get bad.

With lyrics such as We’re tired of trying but we’re not ready to fail,  and There’s no one here to blame, we both came into this, it almost sounds like he’s been a Shalhevet Biology student all along.

 The Artist* is just such an attempt and more – and it also manages to be a blockbuster. In total, Nominated for 10 Academy Awards.including Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Picture, most critics believe that it will take home many of these titles. Perhaps most surprisingly, it uses the past to train our eyes differently on the present.

The movie depicts a good-natured yet flashy silent-film actor named George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), who has to deal with the rise of “talkies” – movies with sound. Set in the late 1920′s, he is caught during the economic crash while his job is unstable. One thing leads to another and — well, it would be wrong to ruin the ending.

Importantly, the movie manages to capture all of the emotions that are so overly played by Hollywood nowadays, but without a single explosion, gunfight, computer-animated special effect or even a  spoken word. While no one can criticize top movies like Avatar (2009), Titanic (1997), and The Dark Knight (2008), all rely on aspects of the actual movie production, not the raw talent of the actors, or the brilliance of the script.

 The Artist*, on the other hand, uses the body language of the actors to portray even the most raw emotions. In one case, when Valentin’s wife is angry at him, she draws uni-brows and mustaches on pictures of him in magazines. Even though she would smile at him, and pretend everything was okay, the audience knew what she felt. In other scenes, the strength of the actors radiates emotions and captivates each person in the room. ß IN THE MOVIE THEATER?  UNCLEAR… At several moments, though the screen was silent, the theatre was loud — with all of the audience in unison laughing.

Ironically, Valentin’s love interest, Peggy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), says in the film that silent films are dying out because they rely on the overly dramatic acting of the actors – they don’t have voices to help them portray what’s happening realistically. In the 1920s when The Artist* is set, many would have agreed, although today it’s far from the truth.

Yet today’s big special effects and powerful music are arguably just as artificial as was the overacting required by silent movies.  Is it possible this is the message of the film? If so,The Artist*  adopts makes a powerful statement for the past, by toning down the theatrics and leting the work of the actors and the overall quality of the film speak for themselves.  With neither special effects nor* speech, the actors communicate with their bodies — using facial expressions, body language, even the way they dress — to say more for the characters than most movies do.

Some students may be wary of going to see this movie, wondering whether it was given a lot of praise simply for the novelty of its being a silent film. But The Artist*  would even be spectacular if it wasn’t silent; the fact that it was silent made it even cooler.

The Artist* will make you appreciate the quality of films earlier on in history, and help you recognize how far the movie industry has come. A warning though: you might come out of the movie theater a bit disoriented, having become uncharacteristically accustomed to the quietness of the theater.

The real world of today isn’t silent, in film or otherwise.

 22 of Sh’vat 5772

Dear 11^th and 12^th grade parents,

Due to mounting concern about instruction in Dr. Gudis’ Biology and Physiology courses, we have decided to move forward and assign a more appropriate teacher for those courses. This decision was made after careful deliberation and observation. We are committed to providing students with the highest level of instruction possible. We are also committed to supporting our wonderful faculty, and the type of teaching that meets the unique vision of our Science department, and the school at large.

Despite this news, I am pleased to announce that we have hired Sean Kangataran to teach Biology and Physiology. Mr. Kangataran, who hails from Ireland, studied and lectured at the National University of Ireland (NUI), where he received a 1st class Honors degree in Anatomy. Mr. Kangataran has extensive experience teaching throughout the sciences, including, medicine, nursing, science, biomedical science, biomedical engineering and others. His references at NUI  noted his superior teaching skills, a fact that was borne out in his guest lesson, and my conversations with him.

Mr. Kangataran will be starting tomorrow.

I regret and apologize for any distress this transition has caused. However, I am confident that the plan we have arranged will be the best one for your child, and the school going forward. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.

Sincerely,

Roy Danovitch

Acting Principal, General Studies

Dr. Gudis had replaced Ms. Mari Rosales, who resigned unexpedily Jan. 1 to enroll in nursing school at the University of North Carolina. Dr. Gudis becomes the third teacher to leave unexpectedly this school year, following Ms. Rosales and former History teacher Mr. Larry Mullin.

Head of School Rabbi Ari Segal said the three events were unrelated.

“I expect a stable staff going forward,” Rabbi Segal wrote in a response to e-mailed questions.  ”Each of these departures have been independent of each other and have happened for different reasons. It would be like flipping a coin three times and all of them ending up tails and assuming there is some pattern there. There isn’t.”

He also said it had nothing to do with changes in administration over the past year.

“This happens in schools – particularly when we expect and demand excellence and then hold people accountable for it,” Rabbi Segal wrote..

Before coming to Shalhevet, Dr. Gudis had worked as a scientist in the U.S. and Japan.  Born in El Salvador, she grew up partly in the United States and received her Ph.D. from Japan’s Nippon Medical School.

In a letter to parents last month announcing her appointment, Mr. Danovitch praised Dr. Gudis’s experience  in both teaching and research.

“We were impressed by her commitment to project-based learning, and the unique and collaborative lessons she uses to bring Science to life for young students,”  Mr. Danovitch wrote Jan. 23 in an e-mail announcing her appointment.

Mr. Kangataran, who Mr. Danovitch said taught science in his home country of Ireland,  is also a musician who is establishing himself in the folk-blues genre in Los Angeles. A Google search of his name brings up a series of blogs, Twitter pages, Youtube videos, articles and reviews about him and his work.

Among the MP3 files available for download on Amazon.com are songs with such titles as “It is not the Hurt that Hurts,” “Lightning,” “Don’t Bet on Beauty,” and “Be the Dust,”  all from his self-titled album.

“An undeniable warmth radiates through Sean’s songs,” writes fellow musician Ryan Stively of the band Port O’Brien on Mr. Kangataran’s website. “It’s a difficult thing to approach a well-tread acoustic folkrock format and make it feel so original, but Sean has done just that.”

In his blog, titled www.seankangataran.com, he wrote last fall, “Today is exactly one year since I first arrived in Los Angeles. I was thrilled by all of the palm trees everywhere and how striking the light here is. It’s different here. We forget that. It’s a hard light and everything is filtered slightly green.  Magical.”

We got to the Youth Village in the heart of Jerusalem in the pouring rain and had to bring our suitcases down to our dorms.  The next few days went by super-fast, filled with orientations, getting our schedules, and even our first tiyul (trip,) to the Negev.  We rode camels and stayed in totally inauthentic Bedouin tents.  It was tons of fun but a little awkward since we still didn’t all know each other.

Since then, we’ve been getting accustomed to dorm life and our classes.  The day is pretty hectic, with class from 8:45 to 6:30 and breaks for lunch and free periods.  During our free time we can go off campus, and there’s a yummy falafel stand, bakery, and super market right outside the chava (youth village).

I’m already having the most amazing time and I can tell it’s going to get better.  Check back soon for an update!

Dear Shalhevet Students,

As I mentioned in Town Hall, I’d like to bring the student body to The Fairness Committee for abusing Facebook privileges. As many of you know, I think Facebook is a terrible menace, socially and academically. I think it prevents us from living up to our values as a school, weakens friendships, makes us voyeuristic, and cheapens our writing & thinking.

When student use Facebook in class, the problem increases ten fold. This is happening ever more frequently. I do not think this is fair, or just. I am determined to exercise my rights in the Just Community and request a hearing before our esteemed Fairness Committee.

I have spoken to students and teachers who support my side. I will call on some of them as witnesses. Should you seek to represent the student body against my position, please contact your Fairness reps, Eitan Spitzer and David Fletcher.

We can do better.

Long live democracy, and G-D bless Shalhevet.

Roy Danovitch, Acting General Studies Principal

The Boy’s Basketball team has drastically improved its record from 5-4 on Dec. 6 to 12-5 as of Feb. 1, going undefeated in its league.

Players credit their success to a collective turnaround, in particular the return of starting junior Ari Wachtenheim who suffered an injury Nov. 22.

“We’re stronger,” said Coach Colon Jamerson. “Ari is back from his ankle injury and our bench is doing better… players are understanding their assignments and roles.”

After starting the season with only seven players in their Houston Tournament – which they won nevertheless – the Firehawks had to recover quickly, incorporating five more players into their tight group. This weakened their chemistry and led to a handful of successive losses in the beginning of the regular season.

The team quickly recovered but was stopped short by a 20-point loss to YULA on Dec. 13. Since then they’ve won six straight.

“One reason we’re doing so well is that the [opposing] teams are worse,” said freshman Simcha Halpert. “We’re also playing better as a team.”

Another group that’s playing better as a team is the Girl’s Basketball team, currently 4-1 in league after blowing out Summit View West twice 62-7 and 55-7 Jan. 9 and Jan. 12. Last year they were from 4-7 overall and 2-4 in league play. This year’s team 8-6 overall and 4-1 in league.

“We’ve had a lot of teamwork,” said sophomore Robin Ashkenazi. “We’ve come a long way from last year.”

Come a long way they have, as they and the boys are en route to the Division 5A playoffs. We can count on seeing them play into late February.