California Educator

August/September 2021

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... and the teaching was easy (kind of ) By Sherry Posnick-Goodwin Students at Dos Caminos Dual Immersion School. W E K N O W W H A T you did this summer. Many of you taught summer school, and stepped up on short notice. Ninety percent of California districts of fered summer school , according to EdSource. That's because $4.6 billion was allocated for "extra learning time" by Gov. Gavin Newsom to offset academic setbacks from the pandemic, which espe- cially impacted low-income students and those with poor internet access. Though Newsom did not specify that summ er scho ol shoul d b e fun , many teachers report that it was enjoyable. at's a good thing, because after living through a pandemic, students and teach- ers desperately needed fun. " We haven't held summer school like this in many years," says Leigh Cambra, a health teacher at Carmel High School who served as "principal" for K-8 summer school session for Carmel Unified School District. "We were worried that teachers wouldn't want to do it. It was a very rough year. But I was pleasantly surprised that so many teachers signed up." A way to connect with students In Carmel, the focus of summer school was social-emotional learning (SEL), says Cambra, a member of the Association of Carmel Teachers. "Students had to get into the rhythm and pattern of school. Some students had not been in a classroom for over a year. Some weren't used to being in groups. So, although we were playing catch-up academically, we focused on SEL because if students are not emotionally ready to learn, it doesn't matter how great the teacher is." "We focused on SEL because if students are not emotionally ready to learn, it doesn't matter how great the teacher is." —LEIGH CAMBRA, Association of Carmel Teachers Summertime... 48 cta.org Teaching & Learning Leigh Cambra

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