Student Options For Summer Sessions Reinforce Learning

By Nancy K. Crevier

With the end of the school year looming, one would think the chant would be, “No more homework, no more books!” For Newtown students who need a boost over the summer, though, each of the Newtown schools offers summer support programs in reading and math during the month of July to children in grades K through 4. Intermediate-aged students in danger of failing or who need extra attention are offered summer programs, as well, and at the middle school and high school levels, students who have failed a course have the chance during four- or five-week summer sessions to make up that subject, said Elissa Gellis, director of adult and continuing education in Newtown.

“We usually really do make ground during summer sessions,” she said, and learning incorporates working on self-esteem issues, as well. “We help kids learn to work in a manner that helps them learn. It’s an important part of the whole learning process,” Ms Gellis said.

Which children attend summer school is generally a decision made by parents and teachers, with input from the children. Surprisingly enough, most of the students who attend Newtown schools’ summer programs come willingly, said Ms Gellis, and do not mind the half day of learning that it involves. It is a small investment for a big return, she said.

Two companies new to the Newtown area offer student support year around through personalized tutoring, but say that summer is also an important time for learning. At WHIZard Academy for Mathematics and English in the Redwood Plaza on Route 6 in Bethel, just over the Newtown line, director Nick Santarelli says that summer is a great time for students to “catch up, keep up, or get ahead.”

Pauline Crisci-Goncalves of Excel Tutoring on Church Hill Road says that there is no time like the summer to prep for SAT tests and to enhance study skills when there is no pressure on from the regular school year.

Ms Crisci-Goncalves and Mr Santarelli operate tutoring businesses that cater to students from Newtown, Bethel, Danbury, and Brookfield, as well as students that come from as far away as New Canaan or Waterbury. Their approaches to tutoring are different, but both share the common goals of increasing students’ self-confidence, independence, and instilling a sense of initiative as students successfully complete independent academic goals.

The mission of WHIZard Academy, said Mr Santarelli, is “to provide every student with the ability to achieve maximum success in education.”

It is this philosophy that appealed to him when he decided to make a career change last year after more than 30 years with IBM. “The process of how WHIZard approaches learning appealed to me,” said Mr Santarelli of the Canadian-based franchise. “I had always been involved with youth through CCD [Confraternity of Christian Doctrine], mission trips, and coaching. I found out about WHIZard Academy through networking and realized it was a way of staying close to kids and helping them to achieve their goals,” said Mr Santarelli.

Following training to learn the WHIZard curriculum, how to use the curriculum, and how to analyze the information, he opened the tutoring school at 78 Stony Hill Road (Route 6) in February. The school offers tutoring on a 3-to-1 teacher to student ratio in areas of math, physics, chemistry, calculus, English, and other subjects for grades K through 12, as well as tutoring for college level courses. The individualized tutoring includes a free evaluation to get a sense of a student’s strengths and weaknesses, and an oral and written evaluation is done to determine knowledge of basic concepts, operations, and applications.

“A course is built for that child based on the evaluation,” explained Mr Santarelli. “We want to reinforce the strengths as well as plug any learning holes. We believe a child needs to fully understand their work and the tutors are constantly giving immediate feedback as they work, at their pace, not ours,” he said.

Students enrolled at WHIZard Academy typically sign on for two to four hours a week of tutoring, and it is possible within six months to see a whole grade level improvement. “Practice give familiarity,” said Mr Santarelli. “It makes it easier to succeed in the real world of school.”

Building a child’s self-confidence is vital to success in the academic world, he said. “Some kids can be intimidated by school or peer tutoring. Here, kids work independently with coaching, and it builds confidence.”

The individual cubbies, enough to accommodate 15 students at a time, fill one room. Laptop computers and CDs feed the curriculum through headsets to those students who need it, and there is a sense of confidentiality within each partitioned cubicle. Real world situations for SAT testing and ACT testing help put students at ease, so that when the real deal comes up, they are prepared and able to focus on the work at hand, said Mr Santarelli.

“There is no silver bullet for learning. It takes work. But the greatest thing is to see that light go on when a kid ‘gets it.’ Kids seem to love it here. They understand there is an issue and if they are struggling and then grasp a lesson, they feel good about themselves. We give a lot of positive feedback,” Mr Santarelli said.

“Summer is a great time to ‘veg out,’ but you have to keep in mind that there are places in the world where kids go to school year around. You can use summertime to get ahead on troublesome subjects,” said Mr Santarelli. Based on demand, WHIZard Academy will offer flexible summer hours to accommodate the more relaxed summer schedules of students and parents. “Summer is a great time to do those SAT practice exams, and we are looking to do a transition class for those students going from middle school to the high school. High school is a different world. If we can give eighth grade students a jumpstart on what they will be doing in high school it will give them that academic foundation that can help them ease into that new life,” he said.

By helping students succeed, said Mr Santarelli, WHIZard Academy makes education less of a chore.

“Achieving Academic Excellence” is the motto of Excel Tutoring, located at 20 Church Hill Road, where former Newtown resident Pauline Crisci-Goncalves operates the tutoring business she started from the ground up in July 2006. Originally located in Sandy Hook, Ms Crisci-Goncalves moved the tutoring school to larger quarters in the center of Newtown last October.

“Excel Tutoring is exclusively one-to-one tutoring, with students always assigned to the same tutor,” said Ms Crisci-Goncalves. “The right match between the tutor and the student motivates children, and by doing better, they want to be here,” she said.

A former elementary school teacher who holds a master’s degree in special education, she realized that children could benefit from one-on-one attention that it was just not possible to provide in a regular classroom. Her business allows her to give students that specialized attention that many need to succeed, she said.

Ms Crisci-Goncalves is joined by a staff of 27 tutors, all of whom are certified teachers or professors. “Everybody has their area of expertise,” she said. Students in Kindergarten through twelfth grade, plus college students and adult students from all over the region, come to Excel Tutoring for assistance in subjects that require additional help. Excel Tutoring uses the Scantron performance series assessment for reading, writing, and math in alignment with state standards, she said, and uses a combination of the school’s own materials, teachers’ materials, and the children’s materials to customize the curriculum to each client. “We do not use a cookie-cutter curriculum here,” she stressed, “and we provide brief reports after each session.”

For older students, Excel Tutoring offers SAT study skills programs, academic coaching, homework assistance, teachers’ practice exams, and basic computer training.

If a student cannot get to the Church Hill Road location, Excel Tutoring does provide in-home tutoring services.

“We treat kids like family here,” said Ms Crisci-Goncalves. “We are helping them to build up their self-esteem. That’s half of it — the other half is academic. Every child is different, so we do a learning style assessment, as well.”

The tutoring center has been very busy throughout the school year, said Ms Crisci-Goncalves, but she encourages the continuation or start of tutoring during the summer months. “Make sure that reading levels and math computations don’t drop off,” she said.

Excel Tutoring will offer two-week creative writing and consumer math workshops this summer. The writing course is geared for students in grades 6 to 10. “The math workshop will focus on handling credit cards, check books, and managing the home finances, and is meant for high school level students,” said Ms Crisci-Goncalves. “It is really very useful stuff.” Juniors and seniors in high school may be interested in devoting some summer time to the College Essay Writing workshop that Excel Tutoring has scheduled this summer, as well.

She also hopes to offer transitional workshops to prepare middle school aged children for the move into high school. “We will concentrate on note taking, listening and lecture styles, PowerPoint presentations, problem solving, and academic self-organization.” Especially for shy students, the understanding of high school expectations can ease the transition from school to school, she said.

“Definitely continue tutoring over the summer,” Ms Crisci-Goncalves said. “It’s a real benefit.”

WHIZard Academy offers tutoring Monday through Thursday from 2:45 to 7:30 pm, and Saturday from 9 am to 2 pm. Evaluations are by appointment. Contact Nick Santarelli at 790-9449, or visit whizardacademy.com for more information.

Excel Tutoring is open Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 8 pm, Friday from 9 am to 4 pm, and Saturday by appointment. Call 270-8887 or visit exceltutoringllc.com for more information.

Register for summer school programs in the Newtown School System by contacting a student’s teacher or principal.