Summer spells fun in learning

Russellville summer school gets under way

Harley Harmon watches Brooklyn Wood and Isobel Wiillar pretend to deliver a commercial through their television made of recycled goods at Russellville Summer School.
Harley Harmon watches Brooklyn Wood and Isobel Wiillar pretend to deliver a commercial through their television made of recycled goods at Russellville Summer School.

RUSSELLVILLE - Boxes, bottles and tape fed the creativity of incoming first-graders during the three weeks of Russellville Summer School.

In Diana Otto's classroom, they built household appliances from refrigerators to televisions. Then they played with their self-made toys during free time.

"We talked about how earlier generations didn't have Walmart," Otto said. She taught them "you can make things for fun and don't have to have the latest gadgets."

Otto's theme of recyclables is part of the summer school approach Principal Elaine Buschjost introduced last year. Instead of students and teachers sitting in the same classroom all day, teachers chose topics of interest to them and taught the same lesson to different grade levels.

From the 386 students who closed the school year at Russellville elementary and middle schools, about 160 attended summer school. That is an increase over previous years, Buschjost said.

Not all of the teachers are from Russellville Elementary.

Otto teaches at Concord Christian School during the regular school year. Christina Crews and Zane Garr, who each brought new classes in Spanish and physical education, are regularly high school teachers.

For the children it creates new interests, and for the teachers it presents new challenges, Buschjost said.

"Just because it's summer school doesn't mean they can't enjoy their summer," Buschjost said. "They do fun activities they don't get to do all year long."

With bureacratic standards removed, teachers have the chance to tap into lessons and projects they don't have time for in the regular year, she said.

"We get to see teachers out of their element, with different ages and subjects," Buschjost said.

Garr, who was the varsity basketball coach and high school conditioning class teacher, was able to tap into his previous experiences with younger grades.

"I love this," Garr said. "The kids really like to have fun; they're energetic and fun to play games with."

Crews agreed she enjoyed the opportunity to work with the younger grades, teaching them songs and vocabulary in Spanish.

"They do very well," Crews said. "They have a want-to attitude. You can tell they really enjoy it."