The musical intricacies of clawhammer banjo.
Minecraft, as it applies to life-lessons in empathy, science and more.
An interactive history of the Summer Olympic Games.
This isn’t your granddad’s summer school.
“Summer Avalanche,” that is.
The learning enrichment camps that are staple of vacation programming for Monongalia County Schools commence Monday and run through July 25 at every elementary and middle school in the district.
And the above is just of slice of the learning-pebbles coming down for this one.
As Susan Taylor, a former classroom teacher and reading specialist who oversees the Avalanche for the district likes to say, there’s a little bit — of a whole lot of something — for everyone.
Elementary age youngsters have been schooled in the rudiments of money management in past sessions.
Older students have partaken of the video-as-literature clinics, which have taught writing and critical-thinking skills in fun, accessible ways.
COVID-19 was the catalyst.
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.
Students were in the distance-learning track, then they weren’t.
They were in their school buildings, then they weren’t.
And when classmates or teachers were handed positive diagnoses of the contagion, everyone was sent back home … again.
In March 2020, when it became clear West Virginia wasn’t going to get a pass on the pandemic, 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 is wont to say, does the opposite.
This avalanche, she said, allows 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.
Lunch is also provided at every school for participating students.
Visit https://boe.mono.k12.wv.us/ for a detailed look at course offerings and daily menus.
