This summer, children, their families, and teachers will find themselves with the opportunity to explore, create, develop collaboration skills, practice critical thinking, and explore their genius.
As part of the Texas Education Agency’s (TEA) Additional Days School Year (ADSY) initiative, VISD is offering its “Level Up” academic and enrichment camps. Victoria ISD is proud to bring back the academic and enrichment camp for pre-kindergarten through fifth grade for a second year.
The Victoria ISD’s Office of Strategic Planning and School Improvement will host Summer Academic and Enrichment Camps to be held at Rowland, Schorlemmer, and Torres elementary schools.
And the best part? It’s free. As in free, free.
VISD believes you should not have to pay for this kind of fun. The District was able to fully fund the summer camp through a grant, so there is no cost to our community and no cost to parents and caregivers.
So, what does this camp offer for children and our teachers?
For our parents and students, when VISD began developing this camp, we wanted to create something so exciting that kids would willingly get out of bed for five weeks in the summer to learn. So, we had to ask: Is it cooking? Is it dancing? Is it something to do with cars? What interests our children in VISD? We talk a lot about students finding their genius. This camp serves to help children explore their genius. All of the programs will be infused with both math and reading to help close the gap in unfinished learning because of the pandemic.
Kids: your genius is calling and we’re here to answer!
The District also asked parents and community members what programming they would like to see offered for their children through a Thoughtexchange that was sent out via parent notifications and on the Victoria ISD social media accounts.
For teachers, the VISD Academic and Enrichment camp was created by asking our teachers: What do you want to teach? When we ask these questions of our staff, we are also providing them an area where they are able to further explore their genius too because we know our staff has areas of genius they might not normally get to share in the classroom. So far, we’ve had over 200 staff members sign up to join us for this epic camp experience.
Children finding their genius and teachers exploring their genius will create a summer camp with teachers who are teaching what they love with students who are learning what they love.
What kind of impact do you think this will have after five weeks?
The VISD Academic and Enrichment Camp 2023 will run Monday through Friday, June 1 through June 30th, with FREE breakfast offered at 8 a.m. and instruction from 8:30 to 3 p.m.
This year there will also be several Saturday events where fun and educational collide for the whole family. Optional after-camp care will be available once seats have been confirmed. Students will receive three hours of reading and math instruction and three hours of enrichment instruction with a pathway focus.
Remember the best part? It’s free. As in free, free. While open enrollment did close on March 24, we are inviting families interested in their child attending the summer camp to place their name on the waitlist by visiting www.visd.net/summercamp.
If you’ve heard Dr. Shepherd speak, he’s shared two of the biggest drivers in education that come in the question form. They start with the words, “what if...” and “I wonder...”. These are the questions that drive innovation, and these are the questions of continuous improvement. These are aspirational questions to help us all recognize what we might become.
At VISD we are committed to helping our students move past what they can be and towards what they can become - it’s all a part of them finding their genius.
Ashley Scott is the executive director of Communications and Public Relations at Victoria ISD.