Shaw Summer Academy Helps Prepare Students

For ninth grader Chris Gutbrod, spending four weeks at the Shaw Summer Academy was not a mandate but a choice.

“It’s kind of fun,” he said. “The teachers are cool to hang out with.

And in the academy you can have more help from teachers, and there’s more to do.”

Now in its fifth year, the academy, held at Shaw Middle School, gives incoming seventh- and eighth-graders - and a few ninth-graders - a chance to work on academics that might not have made perfect sense during the school year. Kids also get familiar with the school building and get better acquainted with some teachers.

“They get to know adults,” explained summer academy principal Christi Culp. “Then, during the year, they see faces they know and are less afraid to ask questions. It’s real proactive.”

Just over 100 students fill this year’s academy. To guide them are seven certificated teachers, seven instructional assistants and five “mentors” - college students studying education. Officials say the low teacher-student ratio makes all the difference.

“Kids get their needs met. They learn how to ask for what they need in an appropriate way,” said reading coordinator Carrie Cox. “Too often kids just don’t know how to ask for help. We teach them that asking questions is OK.”

The academy students are divided into two teams, which each have slightly different academic focuses. Both stress language arts, reading and problem-solving.

Cox heads up the team studying careers and career options. On the first day of the academy, she had students write an essay about where they saw themselves in 10 years. Then, after studying “what it’s like out in the world,” she has them write the essay again. The differences, she said, are vast.

“We’re teaching kids that education is power in our country. With education comes more power, more control and more choices,” Cox said. “It makes kids pay attention to why they have to do reports and do their math homework.”

And some students learn without even realizing it.

A handful of students gets picked up from Stevens and Logan elementary schools and gets to practice riding the school bus. At Shaw, they meet teachers, spend time in their classrooms, learn where the restrooms are - all things they won’t have to worry about once the school year rolls around.

Incoming seventh-grader Kyle Cope said the academy’s academics were mostly review, but admitted he felt more at home in his new school after spending the past four weeks there.

“Now if I have a problem, I’ll probably ask the teacher I have now because I know him more,” he said. “Or I’ll ask in the office.”

Bemiss principal receives award

A trip to Washington, D.C., a plaque and $1,000.

Those were the awards given to Bemiss Elementary School Principal Lorna Spear for her work in Spokane School District 81 with the state initiative for science reform.

The Pacific Science Center recently named her one of two recipients of the Association of Science Technology Center’s 2000 Honor Roll of Elementary Educators award.

“That my work on science reform was recognized, that’s cool,” said Spear, who admitted she was quite surprised by the award.

At Bemiss, Spear has helped ensure that teachers are all focused on the essential learning requirements, and especially that science projects are connected to a whole learning plan.

“We use science as a way to get kids interested in learning,” she said. “If the idea of a butterfly is captivating - if how a caterpillar turns into a butterfly motivates them - they will want to read and write. Then reading and writing become tools for the communication of scientific knowledge.”

Spear said the $1,000 award will be used to buy sets of science books and books about using technology as a teaching tool for Bemiss.