[caption id="attachment_82370" align="aligncenter" width="600"]<img src="https://pocahontastimes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2021/07/WV-Week.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="400" class="size-full wp-image-82370" /> The four-week summer school session at Pocahontas County High School was full of fun as well as learning for county students who needed a boost before the next school year. Each week had a theme and during West Virginia Week, Mike and Mary Sue Burns played Appalachian music and shared stories about the music and history of the region. Photo courtesy of Cammy Kesterson[/caption] Suzanne Stewart Staff Writer It can be the most dreaded phrase for students of all ages – summer school. But this year, summer school in Pocahontas County was a new experience in many ways. It was the first year summer school was open to students in kindergarten through fifth grade, as well as the first time it was held at Pocahontas County High School, alongside the credit recovery program for high school students. Coordinator Cammy Kesterson gave a report at the Pocahontas County Board of Education meeting July 20 on how both programs went this summer. Kesterson has been coordinator of the credit recovery program in the past and began her report there. “COVID hit the high school really hard this year, as far as our students being able to do remote learning,” she said. “Some of our students tried to do virtual learning. That was not a good experience for the majority of them. They had Internet issues; they had motivation issues. “Luckily, we had several that came to summer school and did their best to recover those credits.” Kesterson said there were 14 students who needed just one credit, nine who needed two credits, eight needed three and seven needed to recover all four of their core credits. “Credit recovery just applies to their core courses, so those seven students are at-risk for not graduating, and we need to keep a very close eye on them,” she said. “If this year does not start out well, there might be kids who need to look into our Option Pathways program.” Moving on to summer school with the younger students, Kesterson said it took a lot of effort to get the program started, but the staff did an excellent job organizing the four weeks for the students. “It was a struggle getting started because we were kind of building the airplane as we flew it, so to speak,” she said. “I had some wonderful ladies to work with.” Darla Huddle taught the kindergarten through second grade students with aide Carolyn Pennington, and Rachel McComb taught third through fifth grade. “We decided to do weekly themes,” Kesterson said. “The first week we had a farm theme, the second week had a sports theme, the third was West Virginia week because that’s when West Virginia Day fell, and the last one was beach week.” [caption id="attachment_82362" align="aligncenter" width="600"]<img src="https://pocahontastimes.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2021/07/Farm-week.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="477" class="size-full wp-image-82362" /> During farm week at the county’s summer school, Morgan McComb brought baby goats and lambs to Pocahontas County High School so the students could learn a bit about taking care of animals. The academic lessons for the week were focused around farm related activities. Photo courtesy of Cammy Kesterson[/caption] Each week had a special program, with community volunteers doing presentations revolving around the theme. “Morgan [McComb] was nice enough to come up with his farm babies, and the kids got to learn about feeding baby goats and baby sheep,” Kesterson said. “Their math activities, reading and writing activities for that week all focused around farm related activities. “The next week was sports week,” she continued. “We had two volunteers from high school sports to come and talk to the little guys about how important it is to learn about teamwork and leadership – that it wasn’t just about playing the sport – that you are part of a group and your team members are relying on you. They emphasized how important it is to keep your grades up in order to play those sports.” The third through fifth grade students created games of their own and taught them to the younger students as part of the week, as well. For West Virginia week, retired teachers and musicians Mike and Mary Sue Burns returned to their former school to talk to the students about Appalachian Heritage. “They talked to them about Appalachian music and about Appalachian instruments,” Kesterson said. “We made Appalachian ice cream – we made homemade ice cream in little Ziploc bags and they had a blast with that. “Our last week was our beach theme week, so they learned about oceans and the environments on the beach and beach animals,” she continued. “We did tie-dyed T-shirts, so every kid had a memento to take home with them from summer school.” Overall, Kesterson said both programs were successful, and she gave credit to the staff, which also included credit recovery teachers Shonda Carr and Jeanette Wagner, special education interventionist Darlene Arbogast, nurse Jenny Friel, custodian Sarah Hedrick and cook Janessa Bell. “We felt it was a very successful program,” she said. “We may not have had big numbers, but it was very beneficial to the students that we had. They were excited to come to summer school every day, and they had smiles on their faces. It was just really an awesome opportunity to get to know those little guys. I know CTE, and I know teenagers, but it was very interesting to be around the younger kids.”
