On Teaching Summer School

Summers off?

(Image: River Forest Public Schools)

I was a teacher, but I never took the summer off. I made the debatable decision to teach summer school. For me it was 35 consecutive, and to some people, perplexing years of teaching a summer class (with an asterisk for one covid summer). As we approach that time on the calendar, with the regular school year ending, I still have to get used to the fact that now in retirement I am not about to spend the mornings of the next six weeks in a hot classroom. My long time experience was not that of the stereotypical summer school. For twenty five of those years, I had the privilege of teaching some of the brightest and most ambitious minds in my school district. It was essentially World History boot camp, as smaller groups of amazing kids took everything I would throw at them in order to advance themselves.

After building up some teaching seniority, I was able to claim a class that was filled with ambitious students trying to essentially skip their sophomore year of history. The students were able to move on to their junior year course or take an AP history class early or make room for more social studies classes or add another class in a different subject area (usually science, but sometimes music). For me, their willingness to work hard made my summer job smooth. It was not a bad change of pace from the full load of the school year. Teaching a class filled with willing learners fortified my enjoyment of teaching even though the kids were making my job easy. Students engaged in stimulating class discussions and asked insightful questions while my faith in education was rejuvenated.

There were essentially two different reasons to go to summer school. For some, it was remedial. There were “review” classes for kids who were taking another crack at some required courses. Yet in this highly ranked, competitive district, summer school was also a place for advancement. In the days when we used the class rank system, students taking an extra course in summer school had an advantage in their ranking calculation. Enrolling in the required class that I taught as a summer school option allowed some students to leap ahead and acquire credits. These classes were so popular that for a few years there, we ran four sections of them. After our district ended the class rank system, with the competitive incentive now gone, the number of sections diminished back to only one. There were always some kids, though, who had a reason to take the extra class and bypass a full year of a required course. They might even be trying to graduate early.

The students would complete a full year course in six weeks. This, however, was not an easy task for them. The sessions were four times as long as a normal school year class period, lasting three and a half hours long with only one break. I assigned the students a chapter of reading each night and gave them a test on three out of five days. Concentrating heavily on only one class, they may well have learned the material better than their counterparts in a normal full year course. These kids definitely earned the graduation credit that they received.

Many of my colleagues could not understand how I could sign up for nearly two extra months of being in front of a classroom. Whatever my teacher friends did, they needed a change of pace for the sake of their mental health. Few teachers I know did take the full summer off. Some worked other jobs like construction, painting, or roofing. Others took workshops or summer classes. In my first five years before teaching summer school, I worked at camps, took staff development courses, attended technology classes, or wrote curriculum. Often I did those projects in addition to summer school. Those teacher friends who did not work needed the down time for mental health reasons, to refresh themselves before they gave everything they had again to the next school year. I did find the type of course I taught to be different enough to be a change up for me, yet I totally get why it was not for everyone.

I went in early each morning to grade papers and prepare lessons. Even though I was home in time for lunch every day, after teaching long intense classes, my brain was fried. Exhausted and now home in the high heat of the day, I was typically not up for mowing the lawn. Even though I was working only chronological half days, I was usually ready for a mid day siesta.

The asterisk to my claim of 35 consecutive years of summer school came in 2020 with the covid shutdowns. There would be no summer session that year. Instead, however, the District hired me to create remote learning lessons that could be used by teachers in all three high schools. I made screencasts of all of my lessons for three different courses. I made activities and assessments that could be done from home. These efforts came in quite handy for me as the next school year was taught in “hybrid” fashion and we were in and out of the building. With all of these projects, I am counting that as a working summer.

After summer school sessions were over each year, there would typically be only two weeks left before the first day of school. One of these weeks would be consumed by mandatory staff development days and unpaid time setting up the classroom. I could typically take just one vacation week before summer school and one after.

Summer school became an ingrained part of the rhythm of my calendar. It turned out to be a rewarding challenge and a time to get to know a smaller group of students very well. The regular school year would be filled with all manner of challenges and disruptions. In summer school, I had the privilege to realize that there were always students that were ready to learn, dive into my subject with both feet, and embrace a challenge. It was a restoration of my faith in the profession.