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Summerbridge Notes, Winter 2007
This fall, Summerbridge has been extremely busy with some exciting additions to our school year program! Our week-day session, which is held every Monday through Thursday, provides an opportunity for our Summerbridge students to get additional help with their homework. Our dedicated tutors include SFDS students and both undergraduate and graduate students from USF and UC Berkeley.
In addition to the tutoring support, twice a week we offer supplementary classes in Science and English. Our fifth grade students are currently learning math and science through the study of pendulums. Students work in pairs and at their own pace to complete a multitude of problem-solving tasks, learning how length, aptitude, and weight affect the frequency of a pendulum. This interactive unit is taught by both Heidi Erbe (Summerbridge Program Associate) and Liam Aiello (5th Grade SFDS Associate). Our sixth grade class is engaged in an English unit on figurative language through a literary analysis of The Phantom Tollbooth. Students are using active reading skills to hunt down alliteration, metaphors, and similes within the text. This unit is taught by Caitlin Gordon (Kindergarten SFDS Associate). Both units engage the students in higher-order thinking, providing authentic, individualized learning experiences, and align with the California state benchmarks for their grade level.
To augment our after school activities, we have launched a new Summerbridge Saturday program. We hosted our first ever Super Saturday on October 27th. Students learned about a variety of interesting careers, while serving as journalists. They took pictures, asked the hard questions, and then compiled their findings in a report. Our second Summerbridge Saturday will be December 15th. Summerbridge students and families, as well as Day School tutors, will work with members of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy on a major plant restoration project.
Summerbridge has also held a variety of workshops and activities in order to bridge our program with the greater Day School and San Francisco communities. On November 16th, over a dozen Summerbridge students and families joined Day School students and families from all grades for a fun night filled with great food, an exciting raffle, and enthusiastic singing to “High School Musical.” It was especially exciting to see Day School and Summerbridge students come together for this community-building event. Furthermore, we are sponsoring several family workshops this semester, including two organization, time management, and study skill sessions by Pat Davis, a college professor at San Francisco State University, as well as a session entitled “How to Make the Most out of Middle School” session, in which students will learn strategies for selecting a school, as well as the steps needed to apply at public, private, and parochial schools.
All of our events are open to the entire Day School community. We especially thank the dedicated group of SFDS tutors who have joined us this semester, including Emily Hills, Katherine Evers, Kaiza Molina, Sarah Atkinson, Kate Halper, Erica Crew, Gabriella Meier, Arden Arnold, Lucas Zeppetello, Ben Rushakoff, Hannah Gorman, Eric Gorlin, Alice Tripp (alum), Jack Badler, Liza Ach, and Gina Masino, as well as SFDS associates Liam Aiello and Caitlin Gordon.
If you have a special skill or talent that you would like to share with our students or families, are interested in spending the afternoon or a Saturday with our community, or have other ideas for how you may be involved, please feel free to call Christine or Heidi at 415-568-3660.
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