Students become Empowered Student Learners of Logan County
By Madison Rose, Logan County Schools


Posted on August 20, 2021 9:12 AM



The start of the new school year is upon us, and Logan County Schools would like to recognize our empowered students who engaged in our summer learning programs across the district. Hundreds of students from Logan County Schools made the choice to grow and learn with their teachers and peers this summer.

At LCS, every student is encouraged and supported in becoming an “Empowered Learner,” one of the six goals of the Logan County Schools Profile of Success. The Profile is a combination of skills every LCS student develops throughout their learning journey with us. The Profile was developed with input from students, families, and community leaders. This summer, our students proved that they are Empowered Learners!

These summer learning sessions have been a great opportunity for students at every school and grade level to grow their core subject area skills, as well as social-emotional skills.

At Adairville School, “Camp Empowered'' helped students improve their understanding in math and reading, while also creating art and getting active outdoors. These hands-on learning opportunities were connected with real world applications across the school campus. Each day, students chose their daily activity, from art and yoga to basketball, soccer, and archery.

Adairville Assistant Principal Cindy Beason described student and parent responses as “overwhelmingly positive,” as many shared their renewed love for school. Students were incentivized for perfect attendance with tickets to Beech Bend and other prizes, leading to a high rate of student participation. Beyond attendance incentives, students enthusiastically attended for the daily dress up themes and daily surprises that ranged from a small treat like chips or a popsicle to a tug of war competition at lunch.

At Auburn School, over a hundred students completed a variety of hands-on projects and worked in small groups with their teachers to review key standards for their grade level. Teachers built in fun activities, including holding class outside, a variety of art projects, and playing lots of engaging classroom games. This included middle school students working on math skills while drawing blueprints for their ideal amusement park. In one project, science, math, and communication skills were put to the test by third graders asking, “How can people and animals work together?”

Auburn FRYSC hosted a camp that included art projects led by Creative Canvas by You, The Point Church, and for the grand finale, we hosted Remix Education who came with all kinds of fun, games, bouncys, STEM, and character-building activities. Students celebrated the end of summer camp by visiting Country Breeze to get ice cream.

At Chandler’s School, students learned through various methods of instruction with hands-on learning, project based instruction, STEM activities, and collaboration with peers, while having lots of fun along the way. Students, parents, and the community were filled with positive energy for the entire summer program. Over 85 Chandler’s students attended daily over 3 weeks and made growth in reading and math focus areas. Special thanks to Kentucky Kids on the Block, Inc., Mr. Bond's Science Guys, and Chandler’s FRYSC for helping make summer school sessions more memorable!

At Lewisburg School, 100 percent of students successfully completed summer school and grew academically as measured on their end-of-summer assessment. Students collaborated on planning an entire music festival as part of their project-based learning. Students also used the Summit Learning platform to continue improving their math and reading skills. The teachers put together an individualized learning plan for each student that specifically addressed their learning needs. Although this took an extensive amount of planning, it was extremely beneficial for the students of Lewisburg School!

At Olmstead School, primary grades used specific themes for each week of summer school, including “Water Fun” the first week, “Glow Room” the second, and “Camping Adventure” during the last week. Students loved learning about energy by roasting marshmallows and making s’mores by wrapping the food in aluminum foil and using the heat of the sun radiating on top of vehicles!

The Olmstead intermediate team used fun activities to engage the students in summer school, including animal adaptations, “The Wild, Wild West” study of the brain and mindsets, Animal Adaptation Creation activity, Real World Shopping activity, Mosaic Art activity, and more. The middle school team focused on providing students with real world activities, utilizing cooking, shopping, budgeting, and other fun activities.

“The Science Guy” visited Olmstead School on the very last day of Camp Empowered to educate and entertain all of our kindergarten through eighth grade students (and staff!) with a variety of interactive experiments with the students!

At Logan County High School, over a hundred empowered students chose to attend the summer learning program. Project-based learning has been proven to be effective in learning and retention, which is why it is so heavily implemented in classrooms. Summer school upped the ante with even more thorough projects that applied curriculum from across the entire school year. Mrs. Cooper’s students investigated potential and kinetic energy by making marshmallow shooters. They also learned about Newton's 3rd law of motion by making balloon-powered cars. Students recovered a total of 110 credits in just two weeks of high-intensity, project-based learning.

As one student said, “I think that what [LCHS] did here was perfect. It was creative, and it was challenging, but it was fun! To me, it’s a perfect combination.”

Summer learning is empowered learning at Logan County Schools. We are so proud of every student who made the choice to improve their academic skills in preparation for the 2021-22 school year and beyond!


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