The view from summer school
Monday, August 16th by John Nichols
Teaching Summer School is not for everyone. I have done it for years, not so much because of my dedication to my career as because I needed the money. Sure, I have painted houses, what teacher hasn't. I don’t think there is a painted house in Upstate New York that doesn't have at least one coat put there by a teacher working his summer job. I don’t really like roofing either. Summer School is at ground level.
I will admit to being a little spoiled compared to my summer colleagues. Where most of their students might be repeating a course for a passing grade, I have students taking my course to get ahead. Time passes quickly when you have motivated students. I have a good time.
When you are a teacher, you are also part actor, part orator, part entertainer. You grab the attention of your audience and then you give them information. No attention, no learning. That is true all year round, but very true in the summer. Therefore I try to make my assignments more interesting. I often use summer school as a testing ground for a new assignment I want to use during the fall and spring semesters. My summer school students are the test pilots.
Because my course has so much word processing, it really could be called a writing course. Students compose and edit right at the keyboard. I use a writing process in my classroom that involves peer editing. Students each have a partner, their “editor.” Before they print something, they are supposed to have their editor read it and point out errors. When they turn in an assignment, they have their editor initial it too. When I call a student up to my desk to go over errors and show how to make corrections, they bring their editor. This makes things go a little slow in the early stages, but much faster later on.
I am very picky. I take off 5pts for every single mistake. I do allow students to make corrections and resubmit for a higher grade during the first marking period, but after that they are supposed to have the rules down. No “Do Overs” after the first report card. My feeling is that they are learning a real-world process by having others look over their work. Also, by reading other students' work, they hone their proofreading skills. Hopefully they internalize this skill. The desired outcome is that the student learns to be critical of his/her own work.
In summer school you have a much shorter time to cover the same topics. I go from a semester course with three 6-week marking periods to a 6-week course with two 3-week sessions. The hardest part is deciding what to cut out. But I don’t have to cut out everything. I make assignments where I can layer on new skills instead of a whole new assignment. Computer courses are great for this, because you simply call up the old assignment and add to it.
One of my favorite writing assignments is an essay I call, "Super Powers." I am sure many teachers have used this one. Student are to write about what super power they would like to have. They must answer such questions as, "What is your power? Do you have a weakness like Superman has to Kryptonite? How does your power work? Do you have a secret identity? Do you use your powers for good or evil? Do you wear a spandex costume?”"
This is a fun assignment. The first question is always, "Can I have more than one power?" Boys generally want to have x-ray vision. I try to point out that being able to diagnose a girl’s fractured rib isn't as sexy as they might think. Girls want to be invisible or be able to read minds. They say it is so they can find out what people are really saying and thinking about them behind their backs. There may be a little paranoia there. Twice as many girls choose to be evil as boys. Draw your own conclusions...
I introduce the rules of typing as I am teaching Word. Two spaces here, one space after a comma there, indent here. We make extensive use of the Show hidden characters toggle. As we go along, I layer on new skills like Clip Art, Word Art, Draw and Paint. We will take an essay and illustrate it with both clip art and original drawings. This is where I miss AppleWorks the most. Word does all this stuff, but it just isn't as smooth. By the way, even though I teach Word, and have the real nice Mac version, I write this column in AppleWorks.
Summer school is more about Mastery Learning. I don’t try and do four assignments to illustrate a particular concept or technique. I just do one and try to make sure kids master it. Let me remind you though, I believe this works because of the mix of students I have. During the regular school year my students are not this highly motivated. Not dumber, just not focused. I count my blessings that I am not teaching math in summer school to students that didn't pass it during the "regular season."
My favorite assignment in Excel is a Budget. We make a monthly budget spreadsheet that includes as many expenses as we can think of in class. The assignment turns out different every class depending on what students brainstorm. I like the fact that it changes and I don’t get too hung up on making it highly accurate.
Some monthly expenses we research, some we guess at, some we use a formula for. We have formulas for retirement, insurance, child care and others. Usually it is a percentage of another number. I like to play “What if...” on the taxes and dependents.
I usually don’t introduce taxes on the first day. I like to hit them with that after they have everything balanced. Later in the week we incorporate a spouse, possibly a spouse’s income, and children. Each student rolls a die to establish how many dependents they have. I guess you could say, “Life is a Crap Shoot....” Sorry Forest Gump!
What I like about the assignment is how it gets the discussion going. We have debates about taxes and tax rates, dialogue about spouses working or staying home, talk about the merits of new versus used autos. I have students go home and talk about it to their parents. Some parents will tell their kids that this is none of their business, and even call me to complain! We then have a teachable moment about not asking adults how much money they make. For some reason they feel free to ask me how much I make though...
One summer I took this assignment and added another layer. I have students go out on the internet and find an entry level job. Then they have to get a house and car that they can afford on that income. I show them how to use a loan calculator on a bank site to figure out their monthly payments. They really get into it. Usually they will spend more on the car than the house if they can get away with it. The rule is that you cannot have a negative balance in savings after you pay all your bills and subtract from your monthly income. You can have a zero balance, just not negative. I have this spreadsheet saved in Excel. If you want it, just write.
You could make this assignment even more accurate. You could look up tax rates for where the house is. You could adjust income tax rates by which state the house is in. You could have to find a daycare provider on the internet. I did finally make a rule that you could only have an entry level job because everyone wrote down these high paying jobs that just were not realistic. Still to this day I argue with boys who absolutely insist that they will play professional sports. I say, “If you don’t pass this class, you can’t graduate and go to a good college. Then you won’t be a high enough draft pick to make that money.”
In the summer time I often end up back in my role of technical support, mostly because people see me. I hand out print cartridges, un-jam printers, email the real tech support people with questions about logins and software for summer teacher workshops. I try to read more in the summer. I take my students to the library and practically force them to get out a book. I am friends with the librarian and like to make sure she gets some extra business.
So, summer school isn't that bad. The lab is air conditioned. My students are motivated. I'm gainfully employed. I make better money than I would if I was doing landscaping or construction. Just being around the building I am more aware of what is happening. Fewer surprises for me in September. I am having fun. I give it two thumbs up.
| Annual Salary |
$27000 |
| Monthly Salary |
$3750 |
| Weekly Salary |
$937.50 |
| |
|
| Tax Rate |
21% |
| Dependents |
2 |
| |
|
Monthly Expenses |
| Rent / Mortgage |
$500 |
| Utilities (Gas, Oil, Electric, Water, Sewer) |
$140 |
| Telephone (Cell, Pager, Fax) |
$50 |
| Cable Television |
$14 |
| Internet Service Provider |
$9.95 |
| Groceries (Food, Cleaning, Toiletries) |
$300 |
| Clothing (Yearly divided by 12) |
$50 |
| Maintenance |
$250 |
| Auto Insurance |
$100 |
| Renter's or Homeowner's Insurance |
$50 |
| Entertainment |
$10 |
| Credit Card / Loan |
$0 |
| Medical (Vision, Dental, Medications) |
$35 |
| Investments (Stocks, Bonds) 3% |
$67.50 |
| Retirement 5% |
$112.50 |
| Education |
$400 |
| Taxes |
$712.50 |
| Child Care |
$800 |
| Other |
$0 |
| Savings |
$148.55 |
contact the author, John Nichols
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