By Kevin Ma
It's a beautiful summer morning. Student Jaxon Wade is stuck inside here at school – and loving every minute of it.
He and about 10 other city residents are in the shop lab at Richard S. Fowler Catholic Junior High using files and belt sanders to grind their own custom longboards.
"I've always wanted a longboard, and I think it would have been most creative to have a custom one and have made my own," says Wade, who will be going into Grade 7 at Vincent J. Maloney this fall.
He's got his chance to build his own ride this week as part of St. Albert's Super Cool Summer School, a grades 1 to 9 program that runs from July 7 to July 18 at Fowler.
Starting with a plank, Wade says he and teacher Travis Hay have cut and sanded a longboard that he now plans to paint white with blue stripes. He's also got plans to add a wicked black and gold cheetah to it. By the end of this weeklong class, he'll have a fully functional customized longboard for just $175 – much less than the hundreds he'd have to pay for a store-bought one.
All that, and he gets to hang out with his friends, too.
"It's just a good way to get out of the house and meet new people," he says.
One cool school
About 300 students are enrolled in Super Cool Summer School this year at Fowler, says summer school principal Sherry Foote, including one from the Northwest Territories.
The school program is a joint initiative of the St. Albert Public and Greater St. Albert Catholic boards and has been running for at least 20 years, she continues. While it started as a way to help struggling math and language arts students, it's since grown into an all-day program with 18 different courses, including rock-climbing and digital photography.
Most parents will enrol their kids in a math or language arts class in the morning and a fun class in the afternoon, Foote says. Most have 10 or fewer students, allowing for a lot of one-on-one time. While these courses aren't for credit (as they are in high-school summer programs), students do go home with a progress report and suggestions at the end.
"It definitely helps boost their esteem," Foote says.
Over in Doug Ducharme's Young Scientists class, students are laughing as they send paper-clip rotocopters twirling through the air as part of a lesson on aerodynamics.
"Every day we do two to four experiments," Ducharme explains, each of which aims to get students interested in scientific principles. They'll be making paper airplanes and marshmallow-toothpick structures later today, for example, and slime made from Borax on Friday.
It can be tough to fit these kinds of experiments into a regular school year, Ducharme says.
"This gives them a little more hands-on (time) and makes them really excited."
In the kitchen lab, Laura Banu is having her kids make chicken potpie cupcakes as part of the Snazzy Snacks course – a new offering this year that teaches students how to make snacks and appetizers.
The kids in this class do everything themselves from cooking to cleanup, Banu says – all she provides are the groceries and the recipes.
"Every day is a surprise for them," she says.
So far, they've made granola bars, pizza cups, lemonade, and apple empanadas (apple Pizza Pops). Fridays feature mystery box challenges where the kids will be asked to make something out of a box of random ingredients.
"One of the rules is that you try everything," she continues, which makes the course great for picky eaters.
"It's been fun watching kids realize they actually like something or they don't mind it when it's in a muffin."
Neil M. Ross student Maddy Mau is back at summer school for a second year and taking a full week's worth of cooking classes.
"I enjoy baking a lot. Ever since I was little, I really enjoyed being in the kitchen making stuff for my family."
Mau says she initially signed up for summer school as a way to make new friends and have stuff to do over the summer, as her family doesn't do much travelling.
Summer school is a great way for kids to discover their true talents, Mau says. She's become a much better chef because of it, and definitely plans to come back next year.
There's still time to enrol in the summer school as it enters its final week, Foote says. Classes are $130 each.
Visit www.gsacrd.ab.ca/programs/summer-school for details.
