SSD’s summer seemed warmer than ever, supercharged by 860 bright smiles — the record number of students who participated in our Summer Explorations and Extended School Year programs! The program combines academics, enrichment, and recreation so students can enjoy their summer months in a camp-like setting while maintaining the progress made during the school year and accelerating their learning.
Summer Explorations was staffed with help from our partners at the Stanford Teacher Education Program. Through this partnership, we provide children with highly beneficial small-group instruction delivered under the supervision of our Master teachers. During our most recent summer session, we also staffed social workers, behavior specialists, and para-educators to ensure students got all they needed for learning success. The half-day format, combined with Kids Learning After School (KLAS), allowed plenty of time for fun and games as well!
Our summer programs were held at three elementary schools (Bishop, San Miguel, and Vargas) and Columbia Middle School.
This year was also the first time SSD held its own district-run Bridge to Kindergarten program inviting incoming kindergartners with no previous school experience. It was very exciting to welcome our youngest learners onto our campuses and to introduce them to the school experience.
For more information about Summer Explorations, visit https://www.sesd.org/domain/387.
Students weren’t the only ones who spent their summer learning. The Sunnyvale School District Teaching and Learning Department also hosted Summer Professional Development for Teachers!
The District offered 19 sessions this summer and had 179 teachers sign up for 487 sessions.
Summer offerings included:
- Designated English Language Development Planning
- Introduction to Writer’s Workshop with Kelly Boswell, literacy coach and specialist
- TCI History/Social Studies, a curriculum designed to deliver immersive learning experiences
- Learning about free online library resources
- Book Clubs to engage in authentic, student-led conversations
- Creating a positive climate and culture to support multilingual learners and the stages of language acquisition
- Digital Literacy to promote different literacy skills through technology
- Social, Emotional, and Cultural Learning and how to build trust, perseverance, and community in the classroom
- Phonological Awareness and building a strong foundation in literacy
- Trauma-informed teaching, learning about trauma, its impacts, and strategies for supporting students who have experienced it.
Other sessions included workshops on student-led research in the classroom, an introduction to Math Workshop framework, an introduction to Fountas & Pinnell literacy curriculum, and others on literacy and Individualized Education Plans.
