Saddle River Day Offers a Wide Variety of Remote Summer Courses

What do 49 high school students, 10 teachers, 63 credits, and Google Meet have in common? They were all part of the Saddle River Remote Summer academic program. After months locked inside with online classes, it may seem unlikely that anyone would want to go back to their laptops for the summer. But Saddle River Remote Summer classes offered students an opportunity to earn high school credits and learn about exciting topics that aren’t offered during the regular school year. Students chose from among ten full-credit and non-credit courses, including everything from Honors Pre-Calculus to Cooking and Baking. All classes were conducted remotely over a 5-week period in July.

Highlights of the program included a project that used Calculus to analyze swing speed and angle of impact in order to determine when a hit would be a homerun. Students chose their favorite stadiums, calculated velocity and height, and graphed the parabolic flight of the ball to illustrate their conclusions. Our own Chef Mark led Introduction to Cooking and Baking students through the preparation of multi-course meals, including pizza, omelets, cakes, and fresh bread. Computer Science students learned several basic programming languages while completing the full-credit prerequisite for AP Computer Science. Also offered were classes in Essay Skills, Pre-Chemistry, Pre-AP History, Geometry, Algebra II, Design, and Study Skills – a class specifically designed for students entering upper school for the first time to hone their reading, writing, note-taking, and organizational skills, so that they might hit the ground running in 9^th grade.

All Saddle River Remote Summer classes utilized the Google for Education platform, including live Meet sessions and both synchronous and asynchronous assignments on Classroom. Using the lessons we learned from the spring lockdown, teachers emphasized project-based learning over lecture whenever possible in order to empower students and increase engagement. In one student’s final evaluation of her summer class, she wrote, “I really enjoyed spending 5 weeks of this summer moving ahead for next year. My teacher was very helpful with everything even with holding office hours in the afternoon.” The summer program was an overwhelming success with teachers and students excited about their achievements and ready to do it all again next year.

For a full listing of course offerings, visit our webpage: https://www.saddleriverday.org/academics/remote-summer-courses