Each year, at our annual auction, The Harbor School chooses one large-ticket item for which to raise money through the “Raise the Paddle” portion of the evening. This year, our friends and families raised their paddles to help raise funds for us to purchase our very own 15-passenger van! The Harbor School bus! Adorned with Harbor’s name and logo, classes will be able to take more frequent local field trips. When studying birds, what better way to interact with the birds than in one of the various beautiful county parks and gardens? When studying cows, how about visiting a nearby farm? When studying our community, how about a trip to the fire station? What better way to enrich an education but through field trips? We believe that these life experiences and interactions further support the hands-on, creative, and child-centered education that takes place within our brick-and-mortar walls.

Today, I had the pleasure of joining our 2nd Graders on their field trip to a Mexican restaurant – where they practiced ordering in Spanish. After eating, the children salsa danced and sang in Spanish…and made Señora Mier proud! Our children even watched a gentleman make homemade guacamole (which the adults definitely enjoyed eating!). My proudest moment was when the servers brought out the food, and the children politely said, “Gracias” to him. Polite AND in Spanish!

Next week, Preschool 4s and Junior Kindergarten will enjoy a show at Glen Echo’s Adventure Theater and the 2nd Graders will take a trip that students have been eagerly anticipating for the past two years…a trip on the Anacostia River on Living Classrooms’ Glass Bottom Boat, the Half Shell!

Thanks to your generous donations, we will be able to use our own passenger van to see our world. Our children, our teachers, and I appreciate your support and thank you for helping us continue to enhance and enrich our educations!