Online summer courses offer chance to get ahead
Students from two years ago doing a project. Since of COVID-19 things will not look the same this year but they are trying to make it as similar as possible
With Fairfax County Public Schools throughout the course of June and July students will be able to take summer courses to catch up, earn a credit, get ahead, or retake the course if they did not do as well as they hoped during the school year.
“It was really hard,” said Emily Ivancich, an eighth-grader at Rachel Carson Middle School who took a summer class, “but it was a good way to get ahead and I felt prepared for the next year.”
For seventh-graders and eighth-graders, courses that are available include Spanish 2 and 3, algebra 2, geometry, honors geometry, and health and physical education.
This year all of the academic courses that you take will be online because of the pandemic.
“It will be challenging because students are taking a year-long class and putting it into just a month,” said Ms. Beth Shires, an eighth grade counselor at Rachel Carson Middle School.
The cost for a Fairfax County Public School student is $375 for most courses, but if you are not an Fairfax County Public School student and live outside of the county, then the cost will be an extra $100.
All of the courses have different dates throughout the end of June to the end of July. The time varies on what course you are taking, but in general the synchronous portion of the class will be an hour to an hour and a half long, and the asynchronous (self work) part for most classes is six to seven hour daily. But for Algebra two the asynchronous work is four to five hours long because for that course you do not earn a credit, it is just a head start or extra help.
For every online class the student will have to take a midterm and a final, but instead of a final for math students will be taking the SOL to get credit for that course if it is a credit class.
To register or learn more information about what summer courses are available this year, go to the Fairfax County Public School website next academics then summer courses. Lastly go to online programs and then click on the course you are interested in taking or learning more about.
Mr. Stephen Holmlund, a teacher at Rachel Carson, said, “It is also a great way to meet people if you are new to school.”
Kaylin White is a eighth-grader at RCMS.
