Registration for the Young Ivy Summer Camp is now open! The application can be downloaded here.

You can either 1) download it and e-mail it to youngivyacademy@yahoo.com, (2) fax it to 1-888-308-3122, or (3) drop it off at the center (the address can be found on the contact page).

Click here to download the application and get started!

Also, our office will be open from 2 – 4 PM, every Saturday, from March 20th to May 29th for Open House! Come check the office out.

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Come experience a summer of fun and learning in a safe, nurturing, and enriching environment. Our diverse enhancement and exploration programs are geared towards engaging and challenging our students.

Daily Schedule:

The schedule can also be downloaded as a PDF file here.

Academic Enrichment Programs:

• MAD Science NASA Collaboration
• Life Science Discovery
• Abacus Mental Arithmetic- Speedy Math
• Creative Writing Workshop
• Spanish Time

Life Exploration Programs:

• LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Robotic Camp
• Wii Sports Club
• Tae Kwon Do
• Outdoor Education

Field Trips… And more!

Teacher Introductions

“I have been a teacher of English language and literature at both the college and high school levels for 18 years, beginning my career at the Univ. of Cal. Santa Barbara and teaching more recently at Piedmont High School. I can offer students an opportunity to strengthen both their reading and writing skills. I will give students a chance to read age-appropriate stories, poems, and essays and will help them develop their responses to their reading with focused writing and discussions. Students will also have the chance to develop their writing skills and will be asked to write in a variety of forms, both creative and essay/analytical. I will employ games and activities to make learning both fun and challenging. I want students to both enhance their skills as readers and writers and begin to enjoy their expressive and imaginative powers.”

- Jeffrey Segall, Ph.D
B.A. in English literature, University of Michigan
M.A.T. in English literature, Univ. of Chicago
Ph.D. in English literature, State Univ. of NY at Buffalo

”I grew up in the Bay Area in Walnut Creek, California.  After graduating from Northgate High School in 2004, I went on to CSU Monterey Bay as a Liberal Studies major with dreams of one day teaching first grade.  During the end of my third year, I fell in love with math decided this was the subject I wanted to teach.  I added a fifth year and a second major in math with an emphasis in secondary education.  After graduating with a BA in Liberal Studies and a BS in Mathematics this past May, I started a two year Masters and Credential program at UC Berkeley.  In May 2011 I will graduate from Berkeley with a single subject credential in Mathematics and a Masters in Mathematics education.  I am excited to meet everyone and to learn together this Summer!”

- Sara Valancy
B.A. in Liberal Studies
B.S. in Mathematics
Candidate for Masters in Mathematics
UC Berkeley

Summer Camp Activities

When you register for the summer camp, you can register for either the gold package or the premium package.
Below is a list of activities that each package will entail:

	Gold Package	Premium Package
Language Arts	✓	✓
Honors Math	✓	✓
Mad Science	✓	✓
Cnese	✓	✓
Spanish	✓	✓
Movies	✓	✓
Lego	✓	✓
Wii Contest	✓	✓
Chess Contest	✓	✓
Fun Cooking	✓	✓
Drawing & Crafts	✓	✓
Games	✓	✓
Outdoor Sports	✓	✓
Hip-Hop Dance	✓	✓
Rubix Cube	✓	✓
Field Trips	✓	✓
Typing Contest	✓	✓
Swimming	✓	✓
Ping-Pong	✓	✓
Creative Writing & Critical Reading		✓
Lego		✓
Abacus Mental Arithmetic		✓
Math Workshop		✓
$/week	$200	$280

Math Workshop Parent Information:

Focus:

Research has shown that students can lose 2.6 months worth of math content over the summer. Participating in a summer math enrichment program not only prevents knowledge loss, but also gives students a chance to review content from the past year, catch up on anything they did not understand, and get ahead. Our program will also include many innovative hands-on activities that provide students with additional strategies for solving mathematics problems, while helping them better understand fundamental mathematical concepts that underlie the school mathematics curriculum. Activities will be structured so that students can work at their own level, collaborate, and learn from their peers.

The focus of the math curriculum will be on having the students explore the math concepts that they learn in school in a deeper, more collaborative, and more investigative way then there is typically time for in school. This program provides an increase in time, resources, and individual attention that is extremely rare and beneficial for your student. Your student will walk away with a better idea of how to approach math problems and will experience the process or working with math on a deeper and more analytical level, versus simply applying a formula.

All curriculum topics lines up with the state standards and follow the goals for math education by grade level as set by the Pleasanton School District parent guides. The students will work on daily activities, both individually and collaboratively with their peers. Having each class contain two or more different grade levels allows many benefits to both the older and younger students. The older students can review important math concepts that are helpful for lifelong math learning while simultaneously deepening their learning by coaching the younger students. Younger students can also review and preview next years’ material with the assistance of hands-on, highly visual activities, and the help of their older peers.

Materials:

• Student Supplies:
  • Portfolio:Each student will have a binder with dividers where they will organize all the work they do throughout the summer. This way they will have a nice portfolio at the end of the summer that they can refer to throughout the upcoming years.
  • Journal (spiral bound notebook): The journal can be kept in the portfolio and will be a place for student to take notes, do other scratch work, warm ups, or group work.

Homework:

• The homework that will be assigned each day will be a combination of a small amount of basic skill practice and exploratory activity.  The activity will be something that will require the student to think deeply, try different methods, and use various math skills.  They will usually be enjoyable and even game-like.  I was given the advice that too challenging of homework leads to too much time going over the homework in class.  I am hoping to give the students homework that will be challenging, but different than what they would normally have for homework in school.  These different activities will hopefully be engaging and interesting to the students while still helping them to practice their skills at home.

Assessment:

• Pre and Post Measurement Assignments: At the start of a new topic, I would like to have an activity where I can assess what the students already know about the topic.  This could be in many forms, a short brainstorming session, and discussion, a short activity, or doing a few problems.  At the end of the topic there will be a recap or debrief where the students can write about, discuss, or show what they have learned.  All of these will be recorded in the portfolio or journal for the parents and students to refer to later. 
• Portfolio: I will be periodically checking the portfolios, as well as using them to write my final evaluation (described below).  Keeping the portfolio will not only serve as a current and future reference for the students, but will also teach them organizational techniques of a good student.
• Journal Check: As with the portfolios, I will be periodically checking journals and using them as a reference for my final evaluation.
• Final Written Evaluation: The researcher mentioned that she has used a written assessment of each student in place of a final test.  Basically, I would have a file for each student where I would take notes throughout the summer.  At the end of the program, I could write up more of a summary about how the student has improved and their specific areas of strength and weakness.  This way the parents would know where they, the students’ new teacher, and the student need to focus their attentions for the upcoming year.  Also, because the students will have a chance to explore mathematical concepts in a deeper way then they normally can in school, I will be able to see more of where their struggles are.  I will also be able to give feedback on how the students worked with their peers, presented characteristics of being a good student, and behaved in class.  This approach gives a much more complete view of the student as a whole versus just a test score. 
• At the completion of the program, the student will walk away with a complete portfolio of the work they have done throughout the program (including pre and post measurement assignments for most topics), a journal with notes and other work from the program, and a personal written evaluation of their strengths and weaknesses.

Motivations:

• Homework Credit: I plan to check homework on a daily basis, grading on effort and completeness.  I can give tickets (described below) or other rewards for students who have turned in all their homework for the week or some other motivation for continuing to turn in homework.
• Personal Behavior: To encourage good behavior I plan to use the “Go Green” system that is used in many Berkeley schools.  The idea is that there is a chart on the wall and there is a pocket for each student with his or her name or desk number on it.  Everyday, every student starts out with a green card in his or her pocket.  If the student is disrupting the class or doing another behavior that is counterproductive, I will turn their card to yellow.  If the problem persists, the card turns to orange, and the last step is a red card.  Each color has set consequences, (this could be owing time at lunch or a call home, all of which we can set later).  Usually a card is turned without an explanation or interrupting the class flow at all.  It is a good way to hold the student accountable and keep the rest of the class going.  If there is a protest by the student, a simple explanation can be given or the student can be instructed to see the teacher after class. Some teachers also turn cards back in the positive direction if the students’ behavior improves throughout the class.  Below is a picture of a “Go Green” chart.
  

• Working With Peers: I also want to encourage productive group work.  If a student or group is doing something positive, I plan to reward them in some way.  I have two ideas, the first being giving out tickets to students or groups who are doing particularly well being on task, especially during moments where I am trying to get the rest of the class to show that behavior.  The students write their names on the tickets and place them into a bucket and I will periodically draw tickets for small prizes like pencils or small toys.  My other idea is to treat groups as a team, giving points, tickets or something else to the group as a whole, creating a friendly competition and encouraging good behavior.  Again there could be a small reward. 
• I am hoping these techniques will motivate the students to continue to be engaged in their work and learning. Also, it will especially help the younger students continue to learn what it means to be a good student and how to behave in school.

Parents can view the entire Math Workshop Summer syllabus here.

English Workshop Parent Information

Students enrolled in the 2010 Summer English Workshop will have the opportunity to read a variety of age-appropriate materials and practice their writing in a number of writing formats. Our goal will be to improve general reading skills and strengthen writing skills through a number of activities that will be both challenging and fun.
Reading: Students will be exposed to a variety of reading selections, including short stories, poems, short essays, and character sketches. Our goal will be develop powers of observation and content recall, and, equally importantly, to learn to use our reading material to stimulate ideas for writing. The subjects covered in our reading will be chosen with students’ interests in mind: we will read about sports, travel, cultural differences, art, myth, dance, nature, detective fiction, historical events, noteworthy historical figures, and more. Units of instruction will be organized around such themes as “Where in the World Am I?,” “Whodunit?,” “What Makes Art Art?,” “Who Do We Share Our Planet With?,” and “What’s So Great about Sports?” Writing exercises will be keyed to our reading materials.
Writing: Students will have the chance to practice their writing in a variety of formats, including reading response/story reports, self-portraits, short stories, poems, journal/personal observation exercises. Our goal will be to improve our powers of observation; organize our ideas around themes, moods, or sensations; incorporate interesting details to enliven our writing; and exercise our imaginations to think thoughts we never had before. We will do writing exercises to strengthen grammar and sentence structure and generally improve writing mechanics. Our larger goal will be to make writing fun and learn how important it is as a means of self-expression.