5+5= 10 Summer Learning Ideas for Teachers and Students

Summer is almost here and the Getting Smart team has some great ideas how to “blend” your summer break time with great learning opportunities, whether you are a student or teacher. Don’t fall down that summer slide with these ten suggestions- you’ll have so much fun you’ll never want summer break to end.
Students:

• Sign up for an exciting treasure hunt. Austin based company BrainChase is launching this massive global challenge for 2nd through 8th graders and the goal is to watch, learn, unlock clues, find the answers online throughout the summer and with enough right answers you might have the chance to fly with a parent to the actual location and dig up the treasure along with a $10,000 scholarship! With great animations, interesting lessons, mysterious packages in the mail- this is a summer adventure unlike any other we’ve seen.
• Take the Summer Reading Challenge with Scholastic. Spice up your summer with challenges and rewards, as well as reading lists, activities and resources to keep students at all levels reading throughout the summer. Scholastic is trying to set a new world record for reading minutes – and they need every student’s help.
• Looking to use your time “wisely” this summer? Florida Virtual School has over 120 fully accredited online courses for high school and middle schoolers- everything from core courses to new courses that meet the needs of today’s students, such a Social Media, Peer Counseling, Business Keyboarding and Personal Fitness.
• Go to math camp. What better excuse to head to the bay area this summer than Math Discovery Camp from Mathbreakers. It’s summer camp, but better! All the outdoor activities, hands on learning and socializing of traditional “day camp” but enhanced through a math lense- so students finish the week with deeper understanding of all foundational math concepts- and they will think they were just having fun!
• Take summer school. Go at your own pace and on your own time this year with FuelEd’s summer school course options for 6-12th graders, including 19 recovery courses as well as 150 original for credit courses. With approval from their school or district, students can enroll in FuelEd to get back on track, get ahead, or learn new skills through courses not available at their brick and mortar school.

Teachers:

• Create a blended book club. Using Curriculet, teachers can create a group, invite students, pick the books and keep track of how the students progress throughout the summer. The perfect way to avoid the dreaded summer slide.
• Save the Date for August 2nd. Plan to attend or encourage your students to go to the Math Fair from MIND Research, a free, family- fun event to excite young minds with math themed activities, games, exhibits and performances down at UC Irvine in California.
• Use Canvas or another LMS? Summer is the perfect time to browse the Edu App Center from Instructure– a huge collection of learning apps that can be used in the classroom through the most popular LMS platforms with just a click of the mouse.  Search by level, subject, or platform – but set aside some time for your shopping because the selection is huge.
• Special Education leaders. This one’s for you, we know it’s probably only the summer when you have a little extra time on your hands. Put that time to great use with the 3 part webinar series from PresenceLearning and earn ASHA credit at the same time.
• Edmodocon is coming. On August 6, 2014 Edmodo will hold it’s annual online day long conference highlighting countless amounts of best practices for implementing Edmodo into any K12 classroom. Educators from all over the world gather to participate. Now is the time to register to attend or to present!

Bonus!  K12 definitely has a pretty cool pinterest boards for summer learning- great for teachers, students and parents- basically anyone looking for good ideas to stay learning this summer.
PresenceLearning, K12, FuelEd, MIND Research Institute, FLVS, Scholastic and Instructure are Getting Smart Advocacy Partners.
Edmodo is a Learn Capital portfolio company where Tom Vander Ark is a partner.