Summer is a time for play and rest, family time and adventures. But there’s compelling research to show that kids forget a lot of what they learned during the school year if they don’t have opportunities to continue reading, using their mathematical thinking skills, and exploring the world around them. It’s also been well-documented that the gaps between kids from high and low socioeconomic statuses grow over the summer. There are plenty of low-cost ways…
When Jessyka Bagdon set out to offer her tap dancing classes as online extracurriculars, big questions started popping up right away: what about kids who don’t own their own tap shoes? How do you tap dance at home without ruining the floor? Then came the really big challenge. Online programs like Zoom are designed for meetings, not dance classes. “They’re made to pick up voices,” she explains, not the clickety clack of tap-dancing shoes. “So…
The standard blueprint for online student discussions posts is to write an initial response, then reply to two or three of your classmates’ posts. It gets the job done, but we can do better. Discussions in an online course play a vital role in creating substantive interactions, aiming to capture the spirit of discourse in face-to-face settings. Initial posts can be counterintuitive—in essence, they require students to complete small writing assignments individually before giving other…
For many young people, sheltering at home means missing milestones and public recognition of their achievements. This is especially true for seniors graduating from high school and college, and many are feeling lost. Kendall Smith, a high school senior who lives in Tallahassee, Florida, says her school has many traditions leading up to graduation. One of the most eagerly anticipated events is “Grad Bash,” a rite of passage when all graduating seniors head off to…
May 7 is the date that Montana Gov. Steve Bullock declared it was safe for schools to reopen in his state. But according to the state’s Office of Public Instruction, just a few school districts in small towns have taken the governor up on the offer. That gap — between a state executive proclaiming schools safe to open and the reality of tiny groups of students gathering in just a few schools — shows the…
Due to COVID-19, unprecedented numbers of US schools have been forced to transition to virtual learning. It has been an interesting change for everyone involved, from students to teachers to parents. At this point, you or your child may be falling behind due to the increased lack of individualized attention and the decreased opportunity to ask questions and/or collaborate with peers. In this article, we explore a few free resources available to high schoolers in…
In a typical summer, more than 14 million campers and staff attend overnight and day camps in the United States. But summer 2020 will be far from typical. To prepare for that, the nation’s largest summer camp associations, the American Camp Association and the YMCA of the USA, have released a field guide for how summer camps can operate more safely during the coronavirus pandemic. The 82-page guide, prepared by a private consulting firm, offers…
What will happen on college campuses in the fall? It’s a big question for families, students and the schools themselves. A lot of what happens depends on factors outside the control of individual schools: will there be more testing? Contact tracing? Enough physical space for distancing? Will the coronavirus have a second wave? Will any given state allow campuses to reopen? For all of these questions, it’s really too early to know the answers. But…
While there is no magic number as to how many colleges you should apply to, there are several factors you’ll want to consider when making this decision. Some schools are finding that limiting college applications to only a certain number per student can help ensure a better fit when students decide which college to ultimately attend. The College Board says that “five to eight applications are usually enough to ensure a student is accepted into…
COVID-19 has changed all aspects of our lives, and that includes standardized testing. Here is how the global pandemic affects SAT test-taking. To keep students safe, and in alignment with public health guidance and school closures across 192 countries, the SAT and SAT Subject Tests in May and June 2020 are canceled. If it is safe from a public health standpoint, weekend SAT administrations will be provided every month through the end of the calendar…
