Summer of 2014-What We've Been Up to

This weekend marks for most of us in the K-12 education world the end of summer.  The LCCS faculty returns on Monday to begin planning and preparing for the 2014-2015 school year.

Given that we have reached that point I think today would be a wonderful time to reflect on how the LCCS community used the summer to plan, learn, and continue to teach our students.

Summer Program

For the second year in a row in July LCCS ran an academic summer program for students in the Lower School that also participate in our free and reduced lunch program.  The program offered our students entering grades 1-5 the opportunity for additional instruction in reading, writing, and math.  Students worked in small groups with our teachers.  We offered additional academic enrichment for students participating in the program that were above grade level in reading and math.  This year 40 students attended the program which ran from Tuesdays through Thursdays for a full day.  Thanks to all the families that participated in the program and the incredible LCCS team that developed and ran the program.  We look forward to offering the program again next summer.

NJCU Literacy Center Institute

During the last week in July eight of our teachers and teacher assistants in grades K-3 attended an institute at NJCU for developing literacy centers within their classrooms.  The teachers learned how to create centers within their room for students to further develop their reading comprehension and writing skills. They planned how to structure their reading and writing classes to encourage their independence while also increasing students’ skills in terms of building vocabulary, reading fluency, and keeping journals.

Metamorphosis Summer Math Institute

In August Ms. Rha, Ms. Wuerthner, Ms. Tyjer, Mr. Anderson, Ms. Smith, and Ms. Flam participated in a workshop for teachers to study math at an academic level with master math educators and coaches from the Metamorphosis Institute.  The guiding concept behind the institute is that the more teachers master the content they teach the more aware they become in terms of how to effectively teach these concepts to students.  This institute was the launch of year-long partnership between LCCS and Metamorphosis to enhance our teachers in grades PreK-8 skills’ and understanding of how to engage and challenge students in math.