Summertime Learning

      Summertime may offer a break from formal schooling, but learning can take place in all sorts of formal and informal ways throughout the summer.  Many school districts offer summer programs that are part academic and part recreational.  Boy Scout and Girl Scout summer camps offer lots of learning opportunities that involve working with groups of people as well as individual projects.  Of course many libraries offer summer reading programs for children of all ages.


       Family trips during the summer offer children the opportunity to learn about different places and different people and (perhaps) different foods and different climates.  There are also many online programs that help students to sharpen their math skills such as TenMarks and Discovery Education.

       Learning takes place in all sorts of settings and in all times of the year.  Summertime can provide time for families and for children to explore interests and build on abilities.

       What will you learn this summer?

Congratulations to All First Year Teachers!

June, 2015

Dear First Year Teacher,

       Congratulations on the completion of your first year of teaching.  You did it!

       After making the decision to be a teacher 

• and finishing your degree 
• and navigating the job market 
• and landing a teaching job

you have reached the point in the school year where you can look back and say, "I did it.  I've completed my first year of teaching."

       You probably learned some things that you didn't expect to learn--and that's a good thing.  (Learning is always a good thing.) For instance, you might have learned that some students didn't retain the learning they had previous years.  This might have caused you to consider different teaching strategies to reach these students and to help them to learn this year's content.  Secondly, you might have learned that you understand your content so much better now that you have taught it--compared to when you just had to learn it as a student yourself.  This might have caused you to consider that your students (too) may learn well be "doing" or by "teaching" (or explaining) what they know with other students.  Lasting, you might have learned that great lessons may take a lot of time to prepare and not-so-great lessons can be prepared quickly--and you have to find a balance between the physical time you have and the your desire to keep your students motivated to do their best.

       Mostly, I hope you've learned that teaching isn't the sort of profession in which people start out knowing it all.  Teaching is the sort of profession in which people get better at it the longer they do it.  I hope you asked your colleagues a lot of questions this year.  That shows that you are interested in growing and improving as a teacher.  (You may have noticed that the teacher across the hall from you--who has been teaching for ten years--also asks a lot of questions because she wants to continue to improve every year.)  Using different resources, using electronic resources, using different teaching strategies...it's a lot to learn in a signal year.  Every year you will hear about new and cool stuff that you can use in your classroom.  So find the thing that's right for you, and do that extra one or two new things next year.  But don't worry about not doing it all; or not doing what that great teacher down the hall is doing.

       Learning about teaching is a big part of teaching.  There is no "one way" to be a great teacher.  (That's why no one has given you the Book of Directions of Teaching.)  This is what makes teaching hard--that non-educators don't realize.  But it is also what makes teaching a true profession in which professionals such as yourself need to get together to make the best decisions for your students.

       Enjoy your time off this summer.  But also spend some time reflecting on this past year.  What was great that you want to repeat next year?  What didn't work that you want to improve upon next year?  What is the cool digital tool that you heard about and never had time to learn about and that you may want to use next year?  Look for webinars to attend; find people and chats on Twitter that will broaden your horizons; read a book about teaching or teaching strategies that may be specific to your area of teaching.

       The best teachers are always learning and always improving.

       Be a better teacher, and the next year, and the next year.  And (again) congratulations on the completion of your first year of teaching.  You did it!  See you next year!

Concerns about Summer Learning Loss

     It is summertime and students have a ten-week vacation from school.  Should I be worried?

     Well, I think the answer is "Yes" and "No".

     On the "Yes"-side, there does appear to be evidence that students lose some level of knowledge during the summer article.  But, on the "No" side, it looks like this loss may be exaggerated another article.  Also, the "loss" appears to occur more often among poor kids than among middle-class kids (see graphic below).

    Also on the "No" side, there are 50 million students in P-12 education in the United States and a good majority of them seem to do OK year to year.  So, if there is a summer loss, Is this something that we should worry about?  I think that we all want the best for our children and we all want our children to do their best at all times.  We want them to remember what they have learned; we want them to grow physically and academically.  We don't want them to struggle.  If your child is required to do a lot of reading during the school year and then he/she does no reading during the summer, it makes sense that some loss of ability is going to occur.

     No parent would ever allow their child to go without vegetables for ten weeks during the summer.  So don't allow your child to go without exercising and reading and doing math and thinking and creating and discovering and learning during the summer either.  It's not that we are afraid that they will get a bad grade in September.  It is that we want our children to grow all of the time.  That includes academic growth.

     During the summer, the parents are the teachers and the home is the school.  Keep learning!

     For ideas to keep up your skills in mathematics during the summer, check out our Summer Math site.

Summertime (and school)

     Once we get into the month of May, students and teachers start to think about summertime.  Warm weather, schools out, vacation, camp.  Everyone says, "I can't believe the school year has gone by so fast."  Seniors graduate, elementary students "graduate" to middle school--a very big deal--, final exams, sign my yearbook, tears, and joy.

     For teachers, summertime can be a time of relaxation, gardening, swimming, sleeping late, and forgetting what day of the week it is.  However, for teachers, summertime is also the time for doing many professional activities that help them to improve and to advance in their field.

     Teachers take classes to increase their knowledge of teaching strategies and to learn more about the teaching of their subject.  Teachers also take classes to work toward future degrees and certifications.  Teachers may take part in curriculum work during the summer with their school district.  This may include writing assessments, creating activities, aligning new resources to the current curriculum, and moving electronic resources to district websites for teachers to access.

     Aside from these formal, professional activities, teachers also use summertime to think about and to plan for the next school year.  They look at new resources; they may plan the first one or two units of study.  They read blogs and books and journals to gain ideas for the next year.

     Teachers are busy during the summer.  They relax, but they are always thinking about their students and thinking about making their lessons interesting.