Artificial Intelligence. Outdoor wellness. Minecraft to Mars. Courses in beginning German – and American Sign Language.
This isn’t your granddad’s summer school.
If you haven’t signed your kid up for “Summer Avalanche,” the summertime learning enrichment program hosted by Monongalia County Schools, then administrators and organizers would like to kindly point you in the direction the district website: https://boe.mono.k12.wv.us.
Registration begins Monday for the 2024 edition.
Just click on the “Summer Avalanche” link for the online registration form. This year’s camp runs July 1-25.
While courses are still being set, the abovementioned are just a smattering of the eclectic offerings presented to students over the years.
The Avalanche is a happy byproduct that no one in the district’s central office minds one bit, said Susan Taylor, the administrator who coordinates student programming for all four seasons.
“Something for everyone,” she said.
Elementary age youngsters have been schooled in the rudiments of money management in past Avalanche sessions.
Older students have partaken of the video-as-literature clinics, which have taught writing and critical-thinking skills in fun, accessible ways.
Mon’s district initially funded it with a $1.4 million outlay from the federal Elementary and Secondary School Relief Fund.
That item on the ledger was designed to knock away intellectual-blocking boulders that wound up where they were by the attrition of months of remote learning, which was followed by sporadic in-person attendance, as the contagion waxed and waned.
In March 2020, when it became clear West Virginia wasn’t going to be able to dodge COVID, Gov. Jim Justice ordered all public schools closed – for what was then the duration.
The name, “Avalanche,” is an ironic misnomer, of sorts. On purpose.
In the physical world, an avalanche causes things to slip and come crashing down.
However, the Mon Schools version, as Deputy Superintendent Donna Talerico has said, does the opposite – by allowing students to keep climbing during a time of the year when they might otherwise lose intellectual footholds on what they learned, simply by being away from the classroom.
