Beach Volleyball with Harbor School and Colts Neck High School – An Amazing Social Event
Dancing Breaks Out at Beach Ball Volleyball Game Between Harbor School and Colts Neck High School Students
All three RKS Associates state-approved special education schools, including Harbor School in Eatontown, provide education, therapeutic and behavioral support for children with multiple disabilities, cognitive impairments, autistic spectrum disorder, learning disabilities, traumatic brain injuries, behavioral disorders and other health impairments. Yet, none of this has caused educators Jennifer Bogin and Russ Witt to forget that their students are still teenagers looking to have a good time, play sports and dance!
Witt, a resource teacher at Colts Neck High School, and Bogin, an adapted physical education teacher at Harbor School, organized a beach ball volleyball game for their students. This is the third year that students from the Colts Neck Student Unified Club joined students from Harbor for the social event. The purpose of the Student Unified Club is to teach its members to socialize with peers who have special needs. This means seeing them as peers and Harbor students, in turn, seeing themselves as peers. It is a positive experience, combined with volleyball, but what’s this about dancing?
Colts Neck students learned that any experience with the awesome students from Harbor is hardly a one-way street. Having shown up with a beach ball, ready for a game, they discovered that Harbor kids dance when they have a good time. It proved to be infectious because a group of Colts Neck girls felt compelled to ask a Harbor student to teach them his slick moves.
Encouraged by the Colts Neck students to play, students from Harbor School eagerly participated. The Harbor School students had so much fun that a few of them even began dancing! When a group of girls from Colts Neck High School asked, one of the students began to teach them his dance moves. This reoccurring event seems poised to occur even more frequently.
According to its mission statement, Harbor School is “dedicated to the vision that individuals with disabling conditions are entitled to a full and meaningful life.” Mr. Witt and the Student Unified Group provide Harbor with the opportunity to expand the education of its students beyond its walls. As a result, its reputation for doing so has also reached well beyond those walls. In 2007, Harbor became the first school serving children with special needs to be highlighted in the feature section of the Asbury Park Press. It has also been recognized by the American Heart Association for its participation in the Jump for Heart Program for twelve years in a row.
Harbor seeks to empower each student with skills for life, work and recreation. Both beach ball volleyball and dancing fit the bill.
Read the press release here.
Harbor School a private special education school in Monmouth County, New Jersey
Our mission at Harbor School is to help all of our special needs students with learning, social, language, behavioral, and other disabilities. Our highly skilled staff are committed daily to helping each student reach their full potential.
We would be more than happy to discuss your child's specific needs and challenges, so please call us at 732.544.9394, or request a tour at Harbor School in Eatontown, NJ. We are located just minutes off of the Garden State Parkway at exit 105 and conveniently located off of Route 35 and Route 36 in Monmouth County, NJ.
— Anne Gunteski,
Principal-Harbor School, Eatontown, NJ