Waco ISD inspiring students to learn outside the classroom with summer program

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

"We're getting ready to start them thinking and sparking their imagination," said Miranda Unger, a first grade teacher at Waco ISD.

Summer is very different from the school year, but that doesn't mean there isn't any learning going on.

"We learned today that digit is a fancy word for a number, and you can say, 'Oh look, here's the digit 12' — and just trying to get that academic language here at school and carry it over to school," Unger said.

At Dean Highland Elementary, the district is holding a learning camp for students to hit the ground running.

The first grade teacher tells me she's seen first hand the impact summer learning can have on our kids.

"In the past we've seen them grow when we do something in camp and then when they come in to first grade they'll talk about, 'Oh, I remember when we did that', and they're more confident," Unger said.

The camp is making students, like Angel Silva, more motivated to read books outside the classroom.

"The book is about an elephant and a pig who then says do you wanna play and then it starts to rain and they starting playing when it's wet," said Angel Silva, an incoming 2nd grader at Waco ISD.

Unger says the students are taking full advantage of the camps, that even the students are becoming teachers to others.

"'I did that before and I can do that again', and it leads them to show others how to do it," she said.