Special Projects Keep Students Learning As School Year Comes To A Close

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - As the school year comes to an end, teachers must find activities that capture kids' attention during those last few weeks and a growing response to the time before summer is self-selected projects that are fun and build skills.

The Washington Post describes some projects completed at Washington-Lee High School in the Senior Experience program which organizes special internships, research and volunteer jobs, for 25 hours a week for the last three weeks of school.

One child drove to 24 major league baseball parks and wrote a report on his travels; another interned with a golf pro and the third, with a classmate, built a wooden newspaper rack for their school district.

Cautions: organizations that can use a short term intern must be identified well in advance and kids need training before the start of a new initiative to discuss the do's and don'ts in participating and sharing their experiences.