If you’re gearing up for summer, like most of us are, but will be teaching still, check out my tips for teaching summer school. There could be a variety of reasons why a student might be attending summer school, but no matter why we still need to give them our best.
Empathize with Your Students
I hope you do this during the school year, too, but summer school is a little different story. Some students may view summer school as a punishment. They know that not all students are attending summer school and often think their attendance is unfair. Recognize this and help them move past it. I have taught ages five through fourteen during the summer.
No matter the students’ age, I start off by telling my group of students how happy I am to have the chance to teach them. I follow this up by telling students that I understand they may not feel the same, but I hope by the end of our time together, they will have enjoyed some of the activities we completed. Doing this will make teaching summer school easier because they will feel wanted and valued.
Telling students that they are in summer school because of their actions or abilities is unnecessary, even if it is a true statement. There is no reason to say this to a student. If you hear students complaining about summer school, keep your responses positive. Focus on how you enjoy students’ company and find the learning opportunities you are going to provide them.
Try Some New Strategies
It is important to teach content-rich lessons during the school year. However, when summer rolls around, teachers need to push their lesson planning game to a new level. Now is not the time to use recycled materials and punishment to motivate students into paying attention. Trust me, it is a lot easier to show students something they have not seen before and draw them into a lesson. Summer is a great time to try some new ideas. You might find strategies you like and begin to use these strategies during the regular school year.
Relax a Little When Teaching Summer School
I’m sure you have heard before that learning doesn’t take place without effective classroom management. I completely agree with that, but during the summer, I try to keep things a little more relaxed. I usually don’t give consequences during summer school unless there’s a major behavior issue. Smaller group size and fun teaching strategies help to eliminate that need.
Offer Some Sort of Reward
I’m not saying that you purchase gifts for your summer school students, but I believe in offering tangible rewards during summer school. One of the schools I taught in would do big giveaways during summer school for attendance, behavior, and academics. Some of the gifts would be local pool passes, televisions, and fun games that students love. We were able to do this because of community donations and by asking local businesses to donate to keep students learning and enjoying it.
If your school isn’t able to do that, I completely understand. One of my friends brought in a box of brownie mix to use for classroom management. Each day her class displayed positive behavior, she would scoop some of the mix into a container. When the container was full, she baked brownies and brought them in for her students. Even a small piece of candy would do the trick.
Having these types of rewards when teaching summer school not only helps with behavior, but also will help students get excited about being there.
Take Things Outside
Good weather shouldn’t be wasted! If your content material can be taught outside, I say let’s go outside! Be sure to quickly review behavior expectations with your students first. If students can continue positive behavior, teaching summer school outside makes the day a little more enjoyable for everyone.
