Let’s talk summer school.
My district does not typically have summer school, but we received money to do it due to Covid. The pay was decent and we could do the whole 4 weeks or just do 2 weeks. I don’t make deals with the summer-stealing devil, but the money was enough of a draw for two weeks.
Now, before I show some of the fun things we did I want to voice my thoughts on Summer School as a an idea.
I hate it.
I understand the “summer slide” and I know that some students do really benefit from it. However, I think it’s a dangerous thought process to expect our kids to do rigorous academic work all the time. I am very thankful there are higher ups in my district who agree and chose to shorten it 4 weeks from the original 6.
I know that teachers need their summers, but so do the kids! They need to go outside and play and swim. They need to read for fun. Watch movies. Use their imaginations. Play some video games. They deserve the time to unwind and enjoy themselves just as much as the teachers. We have already taken away so much of the play in school (which is a tragedy, in my opinion). I am not a fan of then making them sit through hour long lessons throughout their summers, too. Let the children be children. That should always been goal number 1.
Now, onto the lessons! I taught ELA and had two classes of first graders. Our focus was on fairy tales, which was a lot of fun. I tried to add in an element of fun to each lesson where I could.
We planted a bean when we read Jack and the Beanstalk and made Rapunzel in her tower. We also made puppets to help us retell the stories and learned about 30 new vocabulary words!
Easily, the highlight though was making gingerbread houses after studying Hansel and Gretel. Their creativity really came through on that one!
I really enjoyed getting to know the kids and other teachers. I was at a school I do not teach at, so I knew absolutely no one going in. That also presented some challenges, but I appreciated the opportunity.
I’d love to hear from you about summer school! Does your district host it? How does it work for you?
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