Tag Archives: summer break

Summer Strategy: Prepare Your Teachers and Tech for the Next School Year

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Summer break is a necessary reset for most educators, but it also offers districts a valuable opportunity to prepare for the year ahead. While teachers take time from the classroom, schools can invest in professional development that helps educators return feeling more confident and supported. At the same time, IT teams can use the quieter summer months to ensure that systems, data, and communications tools are ready for a successful start to the school year.

Professional Development Improves Teacher Retention

Teacher attrition continues to be a significant challenge for schools, and frequent staff turnover can negatively impact student success. Providing meaningful teacher professional development not only improves retention, but also helps teachers feel confident entering a new school year. This is especially important as teachers are feeling overwhelmed right nowwith therapid evolution of classroom technology and the growing influence of AI on teaching and learning.

For schools using Bright SUITE, summer is an ideal time to onboard new educators and reinforce best practices for existing staff. Early training should focus on helping staff become comfortable navigating Bright SUITE: logging in, understanding dashboards, and knowing where key tools and information are located. From there, training can become more practical, focusing on real-world scenarios that teachers and administrators encounter every day. Tasks, such as sending updates to families, managing notifications, and responding to alerts, should become routine before students return in the fall.

Summer Is for System Readiness

Of course, training is only part of the equation. Even the most prepared staff can struggle if the systems supporting them are outdated, disorganized, or vulnerable to security risks. That is why summer is also the ideal time to evaluate overall system readiness.

District leaders and IT teams should use this opportunity to review their broader technology strategy, assess cybersecurity practices, and ensure that their Bright SUITE environment is in order and functioning as expected. Reviewing user permissions, removing access for former employees, verifying integrations, and testing critical workflows can help eliminate surprises when the school year begins. A proactive approach now can prevent disruptions later.

Use Data Insights to Improve Engagement and Communication

Beyond staff training and system readiness, the summer break also provides a valuable opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of district communications. Bright SUITE generates a wealth of contact data, but without dedicated time to review that data, many valuable insights go unused.

School leaders can use summer planning sessions to ask important questions about family engagement and communication effectiveness:

  • Which messages were actually reaching families?
  • When were parents and guardians most responsive?
  • Were certain communication channels consistently outperforming others?
  • Did engagement vary by school, grade level, or audience?

By reviewing these insights and refining communication strategies accordingly, districts can enter the new school year with a more targeted and effective approach rather than simply repeating the same habits year after year.

A Stronger Start to the Next School Year Begins in Summer

Your summer strategy is about more than system overhauls and obligatory training sessions. It is an opportunity to provide educators with valuable resources, strengthen your IT infrastructure, and improve communication practices before the first day of school. When districts use the summer months intentionally, they create a stronger foundation for student success and set a positive tone for the entire school year.

Combating Summer Learning Loss: Effective Strategies for K-12 Students

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As the school year ends and summer begins, students often look forward to a well-deserved break. However, the long summer away from the classroom can lead to a phenomenon known as “summer learning loss,” where students suffer a loss of skills and knowledge from the previous school year.

Between 70% and 78% of students across elementary grades experience a decline in math skills, and students between 5th and 6th grades show the largest drop, with 84% of students demonstrating a summer slide in math.

This can make the transition back to school in the fall more challenging. Fortunately, there are effective strategies to keep young minds engaged and learning throughout the summer months. Here’s a guide to help students and parents prevent summer learning loss.

Set a Routine

Maintaining a routine helps provide structure, which is essential for keeping learning on track. Consider summer activities, such as 20-30 minutes of daily reading, daily physical activity for 30-60 minutes, and playing board games. Reading is one of the best ways to keep a child’s brain active and prevent learning loss. And regular physical activity boosts brain health, reduces anxiety and stress, and gives kids opportunities for adventure.

Go to the Library

The library is a great place to take kids during the summer to help prevent summer learning loss. Libraries encourage reading for pleasure and they have amazing resources for learning, even for math. From books about shapes and basic math skills for younger kids to project-based STEM books for older kids, science and math skills can be supported all summer long.

Incorporate Learning into Everyday Activities

Throughout the summer, the basic activities of home life present opportunities for learning:

  • Cooking can help children improve math schools as they learn about measurements and fractions.
  • Gardening can help children gain knowledge about botany, biology, and ecology.
  • Taking care of pets teaches responsibility.

Embark on Travel Adventures

From international travel to staycations, traveling with children gives them an opportunity to discover history and enhance cultural awareness. Sometimes being a tourist in your own town can be a great way to shift your child’s perspective about where they live.  Even visiting grandparents and talking to them about how different life was when they were children can help expand young minds.

Take Advantage of Educational Apps and Websites

Even if you remain mindful of screen time during the summer, there are many educational apps that can help keep students’ minds learning and growing. Khan Academy, Duolingo, and other edtech solutions can help limit summer learning loss.

Lumen Touch’s all-in-one enterprise management solution goes beyond the capabilities of typical student information systems. Our all-in-one solution is unparalleled in the education arena. Experience a seamless technological solution that will save you time and money while also allowing your students and teachers to focus on improving their wellbeing. Request more information by emailing us at sales@lumentouch.com.

Combating Summer Learning Loss: Effective Strategies for K-12 Students

As the school year ends and summer begins, students often look forward to a well-deserved break. However, the long summer away from the classroom can lead to a phenomenon known as “summer learning loss,” where students suffer a loss of skills and knowledge from the previous school year.

Between 70% and 78% of students across elementary grades experience a decline in math skills, and students between 5th and 6th grades show the largest drop, with 84% of students demonstrating a summer slide in math.

This can make the transition back to school in the fall more challenging. Fortunately, there are effective strategies to keep young minds engaged and learning throughout the summer months. Here’s a guide to help students and parents prevent summer learning loss.

Set a Routine

Maintaining a routine helps provide structure, which is essential for keeping learning on track. Consider summer activities, such as 20-30 minutes of daily reading, daily physical activity for 30-60 minutes, and playing board games. Reading is one of the best ways to keep a child’s brain active and prevent learning loss. And regular physical activity boosts brain health, reduces anxiety and stress, and gives kids opportunities for adventure.

Go to the Library

The library is a great place to take kids during the summer to help prevent summer learning loss. Libraries encourage reading for pleasure and they have amazing resources for learning, even for math. From books about shapes and basic math skills for younger kids to project-based STEM books for older kids, science and math skills can be supported all summer long.

Incorporate Learning into Everyday Activities

Throughout the summer, the basic activities of home life present opportunities for learning:

  • Cooking can help children improve math schools as they learn about measurements and fractions.
  • Gardening can help children gain knowledge about botany, biology, and ecology.
  • Taking care of pets teaches responsibility.

Embark on Travel Adventures

From international travel to staycations, traveling with children gives them an opportunity to discover history and enhance cultural awareness. Sometimes being a tourist in your own town can be a great way to shift your child’s perspective about where they live.  Even visiting grandparents and talking to them about how different life was when they were children can help expand young minds.

Take Advantage of Educational Apps and Websites

Even if you remain mindful of screen time during the summer, there are many educational apps that can help keep students’ minds learning and growing. Khan Academy, Duolingo, and other edtech solutions can help limit summer learning loss.

Lumen Touch’s all-in-one enterprise management solution goes beyond the capabilities of typical student information systems. Our all-in-one solution is unparalleled in the education arena. Experience a seamless technological solution that will save you time and money while also allowing your students and teachers to focus on improving their wellbeing. Request more information by emailing us at sales@lumentouch.com.