PDX Summer School is now accepting teacher, assistant and principal applications for our upcoming 2013 summer school session. We will be hiring 5 teachers, 1 principal, and 2 assistants at Harrison Park School, and 3 teachers, 1 principal and 1 assistant at Harvey Scott School. Check out the Employment under the About Us tab for more information.
We look forward to hearing from you!
These graphs are a representation of the data we collected throughout our five-week 2012 Summer School session. Our students were tested at the beginning of the summer, and once a week over the five weeks. While numbers don’t tell the whole story of what we accomplished they are indicative of our successes, and we think it is important to evaluate both our program and continue striving for improvement in our students.
Photo of Maddy from Hands on Portland
As I mentioned before, one of our volunteers was recognized for an award. We wanted to share this video that Hands on Portland produced Maddy Miller, this year’s recipient of the Nathan Sibell Youth Leadership Award. It shows her talking about her experience in our Board President Tim’s classroom and why she volunteers. Again, Congratulations Maddy!
You can learn more about the Heart of the Community awards and the organization that gave it here.
This past summer, our teachers had the privilege of using a math curriculum called Number Corner, published by an Oregon-based group, The Math Learning Center. This curriculum is for grades K-5 and includes a daily calendar component with challenges and activities for whole group, small group, individual work, and assessment.
Our PDX Summer School teachers used components of this program to practice computational fluency with our students. Research has shown that students who live in poverty lose math facts over summer break, due to lack of practice. Our summer school teachers fought to turn that around for our kids! They did calendar lessons each day that involved the basic facts of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. The students practiced using games and paper/pencil sheets.
The Treasurer of the Board, Loren Northup, a local CPA and small business owner, analyzed our math scores this year after we used the Number Corner curriculum and assessments in all grade levels. In first and second grade, we focused on addition and subtraction, and in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade, we focused on multiplication and division. Northup deducted that improvement in math operations was statistically significant at the 99% level (less than one chance in 100 of a random result).
PDX Summer School teacher, Kelly Edwards, said “I absolutely love the Bridges Number Corner curriculum! The daily challenges were something the students looked forward to everyday. During the Number Corner routines, students were engaged and always eager to participate. It offered many opportunities to individualize instruction for students.”
For anyone interested in what the Math Learning Center has to offer, their website has a wealth of information. You can find support for the curriculum in all grade levels, Common Core Standards correlations, The Bridges Blog that helps teachers navigate through the curriculum and gives new tips and tricks, and you can even see an entire overview of the curriculum. Also included on the website are free resources and free apps.
The board members at PDX Summer School would like to thank The Math Learning Center for their involvement in helping us make a difference in the lives of our students. We appreciate your support!
A great article about one of our fantastic volunteers, Maddy Miller. Because of her service to PDX Summer School and Harrison Park School, Board President Tim Schulze nominated her for an award and she won it. She is being “recognized for her service efforts on Feb. 7 at the 12th Annual Heart of the Community Awards. Hands On Greater Portland and the Portland Trail Blazers will present Miller with the Nathan Sibell Youth Leadership Award at a ceremony at the Governor Hotel.”
Congratulations Maddy!!!
