Over the summer practically every student is done with learning. I mean, who wouldn’t be? When finally released from school classrooms, who wants to sit through all of that again on their vacation time? But there are still ways students can learn over the summer without falling asleep from boredom. In fact, it’s imporant to keep the brain working.

Summer Reading

One way is by simply reading for pleasure. Any kind of book can truly help students expand their knowledge, and when they find good books with plots that interests them, reading can be a lot of fun, and it can help their grades the next year. Many libraries offer summer reading programs for young children and teens.

This year the program at the Fredrick Public County Library is titled “Every Hero Has a Story.” It is for all ages, from children to seniors, and this includes teens.

The program is separated into three sections, one for ages 0-9, one for ages 10-18, and one for ages 18+. It can be completed online to win a free book and be entered into a contest to win secret prize basket valued at $75.

Media Specialist, Marsha Thompson says, “All the research supports two basic facts: One, that reading enhances academic achievement. Two, reading over the summer can help retention, unfortunately, most students do not choose reading as a pleasure activity, and so many of them have gotten out of the habit of picking something up to read”

Of course if they don’t wish to participate in the program reading over the summer independently is still very beneficial to students. This year there are many good Black Eyed Susan books such as Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson and The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone by Adele Griffin.

MOOC-Online Courses

If you prefer something a more academic, there are many online programs to help you learn.

One opportunity for summer enrichment is taking a MOOC. MOOC stands for “massive open online course.” They are full classes anyone can take online on practically any subject. They are an easy and innovative way to take courses and learn new subjects, with great variety and no need to wake up super early like you have to do for normal classes in school.

They started in 2012 and the three more popular websites for MOOCSs are Coursera, edX, and Udacity which all have detailed course descriptions and are easy to navigate.

MOOC classes are just like a traditional school class. There is an instructor; the class is for a certain time period; and students complete assignments and tests, but it’s all online from the comfort of one’s own home, or anywhere you can get wifi for that matter.

Best of all most MOOC classes are free, so if anyone ever has the desire to take one, the opportunity is always available.

If you would like to learn about the arguments for and against MOOCs there’s are several artifces that presents both sides: Clayton Christensen Institute and Wired.

For a full list of all the MOOCs that are offered, go to this website.

Another is Canvas Network which has many classes as well and is easy to navigate and browse the courses offered with.

There’s also MIT OpenCourseWare which makes it extremely easy to find courses by topic, course number, or department, and also lists if each course is a graduate course or an undergraduate course.

Freshman Rozmia Fattah said, “Summer enrichment is very helpful because you get a chance to develop and build on your knowledge so when you come back to school you’ll be ready.”

Here are some other apps and programs to keep you thinking.

Language:

Duolingo– Allows you to learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, or Turkish for free and at your own pace.

Memrise– Offers over two hundred languages. It’s easy to use and you can learn at your own pace.

Creative Arts:

Geinstinct– Website with video guitar lessons, good lessons, but it’s a bit harder to learn at your own pace.

Drawspace–  Provides step by step drawing lessons for beginners so it’s easy to follow and learn.

Adobe Know How– Teaches you the fundementals of Adobe Photoshop with a video tutorial.

Creative Writing Now– Gives you tips for writing creative fiction stories as well as story ideas.

Ms. Tracy Bozenneti, art teacher said she is “all about enrichment over the summer, but with the visual arts I feel like that is more hands on and would be hard to do through online classes.”

Whatever you choose to do this summer just remember that a little learning over the summer never hurts, and depending on what you do, it can be pretty enjoyable and a step towards a future career.