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My efforts for this new PPS summer school camps are documented with pointers at the Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates blog. Read about the vapor of the Junior Lifeguard Camp and the Sports Manager and Entrepreneur Camp, changes to the Olympic Sports Camp and the re-launch of the Olympicpedia Camp.
How much exercise would the Rauterkus camp programs provide? The academic programs described by the article seem to involve a lot of sitting and writing, etc. and so something that gave kids the chance to run around and burn off energy would seem to be a good addition.
Lots of expercise are in the camp proposals I've done. Heading forward, the Olympicpedia Camp is held in a computer lab. So, that's not the prime activity in those two hours. However, we'll have before school and after school and evening and weekend sessions for sports / fitness under the umbrella of a 4H endeavor. I'll be asking the kids in the camps I'm directing to do more, beyond the school day, as an option.
Of course there's a difference between giving a course a jazzy name and having it live up to that name. I've seen that with camp and enrichment programs my own kids have gone to. There were amazing gems in there, but also programs that despite interesting names were boring or just not managed well. It sounds easy to run this kind of program- summer, fun, kids, etc.- but good programs are generally built up through years of effort. I guess we'll see.
Questioner, I may need to put you in touch with Arne Duncan. Title I funds and rules will apply to the summer camp thanks to the redirection of the ARRA dollars that occured during the PA budget debacle. The rules are stringent. Those that control the money are so far away from the day-to-day realities they are prevented from seeing the benefits to learning that occur when summer camp is more camp-like. Team building, time management, peer support, anger-control, motivation are what should be covered at camp and later what will impact the math and communications requirements.
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My efforts for this new PPS summer school camps are documented with pointers at the Mark Rauterkus & Running Mates blog. Read about the vapor of the Junior Lifeguard Camp and the Sports Manager and Entrepreneur Camp, changes to the Olympic Sports Camp and the re-launch of the Olympicpedia Camp.
How much exercise would the Rauterkus camp programs provide? The academic programs described by the article seem to involve a lot of sitting and writing, etc. and so something that gave kids the chance to run around and burn off energy would seem to be a good addition.
Lots of expercise are in the camp proposals I've done. Heading forward, the Olympicpedia Camp is held in a computer lab. So, that's not the prime activity in those two hours. However, we'll have before school and after school and evening and weekend sessions for sports / fitness under the umbrella of a 4H endeavor. I'll be asking the kids in the camps I'm directing to do more, beyond the school day, as an option.
Hope PPS jumps on this proposal and the dedication and enthusiasm it offers!
Of course there's a difference between giving a course a jazzy name and having it live up to that name. I've seen that with camp and enrichment programs my own kids have gone to. There were amazing gems in there, but also programs that despite interesting names were boring or just not managed well. It sounds easy to run this kind of program- summer, fun, kids, etc.- but good programs are generally built up through years of effort. I guess we'll see.
And of course kids will bring to camp the same emotional, behavioral and home problems that interfere with learning during the school year.
Questioner, I may need to put you in touch with Arne Duncan. Title I funds and rules will apply to the summer camp thanks to the redirection of the ARRA dollars that occured during the PA budget debacle. The rules are stringent. Those that control the money are so far away from the day-to-day realities they are prevented from seeing the benefits to learning that occur when summer camp is more camp-like. Team building, time management, peer support, anger-control, motivation are what should be covered at camp and later what will impact the math and communications requirements.
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