We’re in the home stretch of the school year-only six weeks to go. As the year is coming to a close, I’m beginning to think about how to support my students academically during the summer. Educators and parents both know that many skills can be lost between June and August if students are “checked out” of school mode. Like at most schools, my administration requires us to assign work for the summer-usually a packet of reading assignments, math problems, and a math project. However I’m looking for other ways to engage my students. Doing a summer math packet of work can be just a boring for students as making said packet is to me.
My teaching team and I are currently looking for engaging websites, apps, and projects that involve the use of computers. We don’t want students to see the summer work as truly “work.” We want it to be fun and challenging while helping to maintain the skills that students already have. One thing we’re keeping in mind is that all of our students don’t have access to equal resources at home, so we’re devising a way to give students options for completing assignments. This is one of the many challenges of the profession.
Happy almost-end-of-school-year to my fellow educators.
E. M. Jones
Fifth Grade Teacher
Bancroft Elementary School