NEWS VOICES: Wyalusing Teachers in the Parks program hopes to prevent 'summer slide'

Hello and welcome to News Voices, your weekly look behind the scenes at WBIA News. I'm Sarah Sinto. Thanks for joining us. It's summer vacation for students all over the region, but some teachers are trying to make sure kids keep learning. WVIA's Sarah Hofius Hall is here to talk about one way teachers in Bradford County are fighting the summer slide. Hi, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. Thank you so much for being here. So, tell us all about Teachers in the Park. So Teachers in the Park started in a school district in Berks County about 20 years ago. The Wyalusing Area Education Foundation, one of the members of that group, knew about it and wanted to bring it to Wyalusing. And so this is the first year for it. And more than 50 students have been meeting their teachers in two different parks in Wialusing twice a week for the last about six weeks or so. That's awesome. And so you got to go to experience this. Now, how big of an issue is this summer slide that we hear about? It's something that happens every year. When students return in the fall, they may have forgot some of those skills that they learned the previous year. So teachers have to spend time going over them. Parents can prevent that by just encouraging their kids to read or just do different academic activities throughout the summer. So how does... Teachers in the park kind of prevent that summer slide or maybe combat it a little bit. Yeah, what they're trying to do is just keep kids engaged when I was there. It was a beautiful day. And the kids were all over the park. They were meeting with teachers. They were doing lessons. They were even doing an outdoor scavenger hunt. But I was at one little picnic pavilion where a group of girls, they were going over nouns. They were going to have a snack and then start a math lesson. And one really nice thing, there was no technology. No phones, no iPads, just kids in nature playing. learning. Yeah, so you would think that being out in nature would lend itself best to science lessons, but it sounds like they're doing all kinds of disciplines, right? Yeah, a little bit of everything. And it's actually, so the foundation funds it. The foundation gets educational improvement tax credit money, and then they're able to fund and help support programs within the school district. Amazing. So more than 50 students were taking part in the Bradford County Teachers in the Park. What was their experience like from what you saw? How were they enjoying it? The teachers were loving it because they got to spend time with, you know, some of the teachers were actually with students they had the previous year. And they were just able to, you know, come up with unique lessons, incorporate nature, and really do what they love, which is teach. And how about the students? What were they doing and having fun with?

They loved it. They were even in the creek looking for fossils or just reading, going over, like I said, the nouns, getting stickers. You know, they just really loved being able to be with their friends and their teachers and learning. And even seeing their teachers outside of a school setting, it's always exciting for kids. So they loved it. Now, what are some other ways that you've seen school districts or teachers tackle this summer slide? A lot of them offer some kind of learning program throughout the summer, but this one was really unique and it could be something adopted by other school districts. Now your kids are out of school for the summer. What are you doing to keep them in learning? We're trying to encourage them, you know, to read as much as possible. You know, we actually bought them a couple of workbooks just to like keep those math skills fresh. And one of the things I was reading was even going to a museum, you know, going on any kind of, you know, even a hike through the woods. Any kind of experience like that can be a learning experience. All right. Well, Sarah, thank you so much. And thank you for proving that education reporting also doesn't stop in the summer. We'll see you next time. Thank you.