Caledonia — On the last day of summer school at Paris Ridge Elementary, teacher Monica Luxford shared her thoughts with her class of soon-to-be third- and fourth-graders.
“I’m so proud of you and love you all so much. I hope you learned something and had fun.”
Luxford taught 10 to 12 students alongside fellow summer school teacher Lindsey Nickels — both Paris Ridge teachers during the school year.
“I don’t want it to be the last day,” one student said.
Another added, “I can’t wait to not have to wake up for summer school.”
Special education teacher Annah Sork served as the summer school coordinator at Paris Ridge and Caledonia elementaries for this year’s six-week program, offered “to prevent ‘summer backslide,’” she said. “We don’t want them to start behind in the fall.”
Sork said summer school is not a punishment for doing poorly during the regular school year, but is like practicing for sports during the off-season.
“Otherwise, you’re rusty when you start the next season. We help them firm up and maintain their existing skills.”
This summer, around 100 K-4 students were enrolled in summer school, with more than 200 students enrolled district-wide.
All elementary schools hosted their own K-4 students for summer school programming, Sork said, which allowed them to feel more familiar with their teachers and continue building relationships with their classmates.
Paris Ridge teachers used i-Ready curriculum alongside in-class activities and activity packets, to plan individualized learning for each grade level.
Sork and Nickels talked about their theme days, inspired by Harry Potter, Disney and the Summer Olympics. Students worked on activity packets, with math and reading assignments based on the theme. One project involved students drawing a poster to market a book they read.
“(Summer school) has intense four-hour sessions, so we try to have some fun,” Sork said. “We work students at their previous grade level to retain what they learned, without getting too far ahead into things they haven’t learned yet.”
Due to the smaller class sizes, summer school students also received more one-on-one time with their teachers.
On his last day, soon-to-be fourth-grader Sajal worked to solve triple-digit addition problems in his activity packet. Each solution indicated which color he needed to use to color in squares making up a mystery picture.
“I have to finish all the math before Ms. Nickels makes a lap (around the room.) It’s challenging,” he said.
When Nickels returned, Sajal said he was struggling to find the answer to one of his math problems in the picture.
“Let’s check our math together,” she said. “What is 787 plus 154?”
Putting his pencil to paper, Sajal carried the ones and confirmed the answer was 941, which needed to be colored black on his paper.
Said Nickels: “It’s amazing the growth we’ve seen in our students in just a few weeks.”
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