(Nixa, MO)--Summer school used to be about making up for lost time -- or improving a grade in a class. But Nixa Junior High is taking a different approach.
With classes on building rockets, geocaching and getting used to your new school, Nixa Junior High is letting kids get out of the classroom to help make their education an adventure.
7th Grader Alli Christiansen said she had a decided advantage over kids at the beginning of the year, especially after her summers school classes last year.
Christiansen says a program called Transition To Junior High helped show her the ropes at Nixa Junior High. "(It's)...good because it showed us how to open up lockers and tour the school and figure out where some classes were."
The class helped her keep her cool at her new school.
"There were a lot of people that didn't take it you could tell they were freaking out, they didn't know what was going on."
This summer Alli is taking classes again.
"Rockets and the Movie Mania."
Alli says making rockets out of soda bottle sounded like something she couldn't miss.
"...saw some people doing it last year and it sounded like a lot of fun."
"It's important for kids to see that learning is fun and to have a good time at school." says Colby Fronterhouse, assistant principal at Nixa Junior High.
Whether it's geocaching, building rockets or theatre Fronterhouse says the point is to get kids to explore in the classroom and beyond it's walls.
"It's not just remedial to catch students up any more it's a way to take advanced learners and help them take the different paths that they may even take after school for careers."
Alli Christiansen says the approach gives the students a lot of freedom.
"I like it. It's good we get to choose our own classes instead of the same old stuff we have every year."
Enrollment is up about 10-percent to nearly 300 children and enrollment is still open.
Find out more
With classes on building rockets, geocaching and getting used to your new school, Nixa Junior High is letting kids get out of the classroom to help make their education an adventure.
7th Grader Alli Christiansen said she had a decided advantage over kids at the beginning of the year, especially after her summers school classes last year.
Christiansen says a program called Transition To Junior High helped show her the ropes at Nixa Junior High. "(It's)...good because it showed us how to open up lockers and tour the school and figure out where some classes were."
The class helped her keep her cool at her new school.
"There were a lot of people that didn't take it you could tell they were freaking out, they didn't know what was going on."
This summer Alli is taking classes again.
"Rockets and the Movie Mania."
Alli says making rockets out of soda bottle sounded like something she couldn't miss.
"...saw some people doing it last year and it sounded like a lot of fun."
"It's important for kids to see that learning is fun and to have a good time at school." says Colby Fronterhouse, assistant principal at Nixa Junior High.
Whether it's geocaching, building rockets or theatre Fronterhouse says the point is to get kids to explore in the classroom and beyond it's walls.
"It's not just remedial to catch students up any more it's a way to take advanced learners and help them take the different paths that they may even take after school for careers."
Alli Christiansen says the approach gives the students a lot of freedom.
"I like it. It's good we get to choose our own classes instead of the same old stuff we have every year."
Enrollment is up about 10-percent to nearly 300 children and enrollment is still open.
Find out more
