Friday, June 11, 2010

Summer School

There are a lot of productive ways you can spend your summer break. One option is summer school. Today, most of my day at school was spent reviewing the semester failures and for a lot of students, summer school is not just a good option it is essential! If you have failed a class or are trying to get ahead or you are hoping to create more room for elective courses in your schedule during the year, summer school is a great option.

I also noticed that there were a LOT of students who had told me during registration time that they planned on taking classes in summer school, but I didn’t see many of your names on the summer school list. It is very important that you let me know if your plans have changed and I need to rework your schedule. This is particularly important if you will no longer be taking a class required for graduation and I need to work it back into your schedule for next year.

If you are contemplating summer school there are a couple of pieces of information I would like you to be aware of:

1.) Sign up soon! The first session of summer school begins one week from Monday, but you should be signed up prior to that point. You register at the Worthington Education Center on Wilson Bridge Rd. Here is a link to the registration brochure.

2.) Summer school will be held at WKHS. (Some Wellness for Life – formerly called Phys Ed – courses are being offered at other locations and I heard that the WKHS Wellness courses are full.)

3.) Most classes run from 7:40am – Noon. That means that most days are like a week of school so you cannot miss a day – attendance is essential!

4.) The classes are just 3 weeks in length. The first session runs from June 21st to July 9th (with no school on July 5th). The second session runs from July 12th to July 29th.

5.) Most courses cost around $200. (Students on the free and reduced lunch program are allowed to attend for $50.)

6.) The first session of summer school correlates with the 1st session of the school year. So, if you failed a 1st semester of a course, then you would want to attend the 1st session of summer school.

7.) The second session of summer school correlates with the 2nd session of the school year. So, if you failed a 2nd semester of a course, then you would want to attend the 2nd session of summer school.

8.) There are traditional classroom options with Worthington Summer School and also Worthington Online Summer School Credit Recovery. (Even if choosing the online option you still have to come to summer school daily and complete your work on the computers at the school.) For many classes you would have the choice which format you wanted to take your classes in this summer. Be sure to think about this carefully though because some people do really well at going out and pushing themselves to learn the information without having a teacher there to share the information and answer questions when you don’t understand things, but others prefer the interaction and hands on activities that can come from a traditional classroom. That being said, not every course will be offered in both formats – you can double check with the summer school office to find out which is offered.

9.) One advantage of the online option is that students can take a semester class that they failed in a “different” session time. (This is very important to remember if you failed two classes during the same semester!) So, for example, if you failed both US History and BESS during the 2nd semester, then I would recommend that you sign up to take US History via Worthington online credit recovery during the 1st session of summer school and take regular BESS (traditional setting) during the 2nd session of summer school.

10.) Students who failed one or more sections of the OGT may elect to re-take up to two sections of the OGT this summer. You must complete 10 hours of tutoring prior to taking the test though so it is important to log your hours so that you can take the test. If you are in this situation and need information about logging your hours, please contact me at school. You must also e-mail Mr. Sparks or notify the summer school office that you plan on testing and which test(s) you plan on taking so that they can order enough tests.

If you have any questions about which classes you should be taking during summer school, feel free to contact me (via phone or e-mail) before Tuesday.

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