Monday marked the beginning of summer school classes in the Shawano School District for students beginning 4-K through 8th grade.
Shawano Middle School Associate Principal Dr. Rod Watson explains it’s really a way for the district to offer unique and interesting classes that show students learning can be fun.
“Summer school is an enrichment activity or enrichment program that is centered around reminding kids, and teachers perhaps, that learning can and should be fun,” he said. “There’s no homework. There are no grades. There’s just learning and fun and smiles. That’s what it’s supposed to be, so we come up with classes based on teacher interest, student interest and we try to fill schedules based on things we just think are going to be fun and interesting.”
Some new courses that students are taking this year, include a S.T.E.M class, which will be held on Shawano Lake, a Pintrest class, a new orchestra class, as well as a civics class that allows students to serve the community in some way. The new offerings are something the district takes into consideration every year.
“We revamp the catalog every year, based on if the kids are taking classes, we keep them in there,” Dr. Watson said. “If they express interest in classes we put them in there. If teachers say they’ve got an idea for a class we put that in there. We just see if we can fill it up.”
Middle school students will notice a change in the location of their classes.
“The big change this year is that we’re at the middle school for the middle grades instead of at the high school,” said Dr. Watson about what’s different from previous years. “We had always been at the high school because it was air conditioned, but now with the referendum passing, we have air condition in the middle school, so we’re going to put middle school kids in the right building this year.”
Summer school is a five-week session that runs today through July 14.