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Nelson
fined for campaign finance violations
Springbrook Village will go before planning
commission
Landon Nash: Cowboy for a week
|
Summer school: A second chance |
Students earn class credit to catch up to their
peers in school |
By Laurent
Bonczijk, Newberg Graphic
reporter
E-mail Laurent at
lbonczijk@eaglenewspapers.com
|
Summer. Hot days spent by the pool. Long evenings spent shooting the
breeze on the patio. Long hours spent indoors studying.
Does the last one sound out of place? It really is what about 20
students are doing during Newberg High School’s credit recovery
program. Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to noon, those students
read textbooks, write essays and take tests.
The program,
which lasts six weeks, is designed for students to make up one class
or half a credit. Tyler Wallace, 23, a math teacher at NHS during
the year, said that most students only make up one class but that
“students who go the extra mile can do up to two or three classes.”
Wallace is one of two teachers present to answer questions from the
students.
The program is based on student self-motivation. That fits Beth
Hampton just fine. Hampton, 17, plans to graduate with the class of
2008 once she makes up sophomore English and history this summer.
She hopes to have everything completed by Aug. 2.
“My sophomore year I was supposed to do home school stuff but I
didn’t get much done,” she said to explain her presence in the
program. “I can work at my own pace. I’m not being pressured to do
things, but I’m still getting my stuff done.”
The “regular school stuff doesn’t work for me,” she said. “I am not
necessarily one of the bad kids, I’m just not that great at school,”
adding that she feels that she doesn’t really fit in.
Hampton has projects for life after high school: she wants to
attend Bible college in Cannon Beach and work overseas. She has been
involved, through her Friends youth group, with the Invisible
Children campaign and thinks it would be a good experience to find
employment with them.
Jordan Vanbergen, 17, will also be a senior in the fall. She said
the reason she is attending summer classes is simple.
“I didn’t get my work done my freshman year,” she said. Vanbergen
completed sophomore English and is now working on U.S. history. She
thinks that if she keeps working as hard as she did for her English
class she will only need to attend the school for another 10 days.
Wallace said that as an incentive for the students to finish their
work, they are not required to come once they’ve completed the
classes they’ve signed up for.
“I just wanna have a summer like a normal kid,” Vanbergen said. She
wants to get a job. She plans to attend a beauty school in Tampa
Bay, Fla., after graduation in hopes of becoming a cosmetologist and
hair stylist.
“I like making people pretty,” she said.
Wallace said that because each student is on a personalized
curriculum, there is little in-class interaction. The teachers are
there to lead the students to the answers if need be.
Some students are there because of poor choices, he said, others
because of absences due to illness or their parents’ divorce.
Wallace’s goal, he said, is to motivate students to see the
importance of earning a high school diploma and then moving on to a
job, a trade school or college.
“I have a passion for seeing high school youths succeed,” Wallace
said. |
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From
July 11, 2007, Newberg Graphic
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