GREENSBORO, N.C. — Washington Montessori Elementary School celebrated another successful school year during the morning announcements.
Principal Paul Travers teamed up with the Triad Aviation Academy to congratulate students on their hard work while flying over them in an airplane.
The plane flew over the school so students could wave at him as he delivers one of his most exciting announcements of the year.
"Every Wednesday for the past 3 years, I’ve been going to different locations around Guilford County to expose students to different areas so they can figure out what is at their fingertips," Travers said.
Travers' adventures are projected onto the screen through Zoom, and students are watching and learning about different areas in Guilford County.
He had the idea to use Zoom in the classrooms during its uprising before the pandemic.
"We are actually going to fly over the building. There will be some students outside looking up at the sky and some students in the classroom," Travers said.
Travers wants to send students off with a great deal of thinking of their future. He wants to them to think of what it is they can do or might enjoy or what they might have a great skillset in.
"Starting off the first day of the last week of school flying over the building talking about aviation and altitude and flyover and what all that means, We just hope to inspire students to be hopeful about what they can do to impact our world in the future," Travers said.
Travers believes it's important for students to see is what’s right at their fingertips, what’s close, and what’s accessible.
"We want to make sure that our students see that all the things around them are accessible and there’s opportunities out there for them to participate," he said.
Triad Aviation Academy has camps and train young students to be pilots to get them excited about flying and about the possibility of one day being a pilot.
"It's great to think about what these exposures can inspire," Travers said. "I have my son flying with me and he looked at me and said, 'dad, I want to be a pilot when I grow up.'"
It means the world to Travers when students express what they want to do when they grow up.
"When I go back in the building, students say 'hey, I want to be a pilot, or I want to train horses for therapeutic reasons when I grow up,'" he said.
Travers has been all over the county including the grasshopper's stadium and plans to go horseback riding soon.
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