Summer evokes similar feelings in most people: warm sunny weather, long hot days spent at the beach or the park, and family time. Besides these wonderful feelings, the summer months provide students in kindergarten through twelfth grade across the nation with a change of pace, a pause, and rest after a school year filled with both academic and extracurricular activities. This past school year, Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) students worked hard and exhibited unparalleled success on the Spring 2018 administration of Florida’s statewide assessments, across all content areas and grade levels. Our students, like most adults, labor tirelessly throughout the year, and they welcome the arrival of summer with open arms. And rightfully so.
Does this mean that learning needs to stop during the summer months? Not at all. Learning is ongoing and can happen anytime, anywhere. As an integral part of children’s development and a pillar of human civilization, learning allows students to discover the world and, in the process, discover themselves. There are, in fact, many ways to continue acquiring new knowledge beyond the classroom. I urge parents to be cognizant of these multiple pathways to learning and encourage their children to be active, to enjoy the great outdoors, to visit the public library, to read for leisure, to volunteer and give back to the community, and to learn something new not because they have to but because they WANT to.
As parents, it’s often tempting to allow children to spend countless hours on their mobile devices playing the latest video games or watching music videos on YouTube. Today’s children have access to an array of media and devices that were totally unavailable a decade ago. Sometimes we worry that our youngsters are spending too much time in front of a screen. Besides simply limiting and controlling screen time (which is definitely necessary), why not try to channel some of this time towards more meaningful, active, and productive pursuits?
To assist families in this perennial search of knowledge and learning, M-DCPS offers a plethora of free grade-level appropriate resources to all students in our district through the eLearning Tool in the student portal at www.dadeschools.net, including fun activities in art and music and other areas, such as coding and robotics, as well as traditional subjects. Students can select these activities based on their interest or academic needs, which will not only prevent the summer learning loss but will allow students to deepen and enrich their knowledge or discover new interests or talents. These resources have been carefully vetted and curated to ensure M-DCPS students have access to a digital classroom to catch up or a digital playground to extend learning during the summer months.
One of these resources, for example, allows high school students to receive free SAT practice through a partnership with Khan Academy and the College Board. As you know, a high score on the SAT increases students’ likelihood of being admitted into college. But this is just one of the many resources available to students in the eLearning Tool. I encourage parents to set time aside this summer to explore these resources with their children and discover the wonderful assets that students can access through the portal.
I encourage parents to enjoy the wonderful summer months with their children, to explore the world and their surroundings together and, yes, to help their children to continue learning. Because school may be over, but true learning never stops.
