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Welcome to the HGS Newsletter!
The Howard Gardner School is a small, progressive independent high school for college-bound learners in Alexandria, Virginia. With a focus on environmental science and the arts, the school's mission is to help bright, creative non-traditional learners use their unique strengths to thrive academically, intellectually and emotionally. Hands-on learning and weekly field studies keep students active and involved, and internships let students explore their interests through work.
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Arts & Science Exhibition |
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Join us at the Arts & Sciences Exhibition for student work: displays, demonstrations, photography, painting, animation, and literary readings on Thursday, March 26th at 7:30. This is always a great evening--you won't want to miss it! |
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In the Classroom: Ecology |
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 After studying watersheds and wetlands, ecology classes have been experimenting with various methods to clean simulated polluted river water. In this activity, students choose from a variety of materials and household tools that mimic how natural wetlands filter direct and indirect pollutants from water, including rocks, window screening, sand, cotton balls, cloth, coffee filters, and funnels. |
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New PE Classes |
Our late winter PE classes include ice skating, weight training,  bowling, and indoor climbing. The emphasis this session is on lifetime fitness and recreation--finding healthy activities that our students can enjoy throughout their lives.
In mid-afternoon on Thursdays, our students have the rink to themselves, and even get to choose the music! Meanwhile, other students work out in the weight room.
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Senior Intern: Cal Slater |
At only sixteen, Cal Slater is already an accomplished filmmaker and animator. Cal recently won "Best Animated Film" at the 16:9 International Student Film Festival in Mumbai, India. Cal's earlier  work received honorable mention in last year's Falls Church Film Festival.
A long-time intern at Arlington Independent Media, Cal also interned as a documentary filmmaker over the summer through the "Document Arlington" project.
Cal will co-teach an animation class third trimester at HGS as part of his "Senior Experience," and is planning to return to HGS to teach animation workshops while he is in college at The Art Institute of Washington.
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Teacher Profile: Emily Pavot |
Emily Pavot, a co-founder of HGS, is our Learning Specialist and head of our English department. With a Master's degree in Education and many years of teaching in a wide range of settings, Emily continually uses her professional experience to enrich our program. But what makes Emily special is the creativity,  enthusiasm, and humor she brings every day to every class. From sending kids on "missions" to survey the school community on various topics in order to write up the results, to filming a horror movie to demonstrate elements of plot, to sobbing as she reads outloud the last chapter in "Of Mice and Men, Emily's classes are always memorable. A Division I college tennis player, Emily will teach tennis again this spring, impressing students who doubt her athletic reputation as she turns into "Mad Dog" on the court. She's still got game! |
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Building Update... from Katherine |
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We have reached two important milestones:
1) We have raised just enough funds to secure our loan, and
2) Our site plan is in review!
We are still on track for a spring ground-breaking.
We are thrilled to be celebrating our successes and very grateful to everyone who has helped us reach this point.
Our Capital Campaign continues however as we still need furniture, equipment, carpeting, etc.in order to have a fully-functional classroom environment for our students.
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This is the fourth edition of our monthly newsletter with information for parents, students, alumni, and friends of HGS. Please send us any updates on our kids or alumni so we can include them in future issues.
We hope you have enjoyed it!
Sincerely,
Katherine Keith
The Howard Gardner School |
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