What to Expect
Exceptional Teaching
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Active Learning
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Friendships
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Fun!
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Enrichment and Evaluation
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Exceptional Teaching | Active Learning | Friendships | Fun! | Enrichment and Evaluation | Parent Education
Exceptional Teaching
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Spectrum educators are selected for their content expertise, familiarity with the needs of talented adolescents, enthusiasm, ability to individualize their teaching and skill in providing interactive and engaging classroom experiences. Instructors make the most of their time with students, accomplishing up to an entire school year of curriculum in three weeks. With training in recognizing student strengths and encouraging high achievement, Spectrum instructors nurture students’ passion for the course subject and love for learning. |
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Active Learning
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Spectrum courses are designed with talented young students in mind, inviting them to direct their considerable talent and energy toward interdisciplinary projects and practical problem solving. Spectrum students engage in service-learning, present facts in a mock trial setting and learn advanced math and science by building robots, kites and skyscrapers. They also craft masterful prose and solve complex equations. Whether led by a teacher or their own self-discipline, Spectrum students surprise even themselves by how much they can learn, achieve and grow in just three short weeks. |
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Friendships
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Spectrum provides an excellent opportunity for gifted students to learn and socialize with their intellectual peers. Rather than being singled out and labeled as the “smart kid” in a regular classroom, students are surrounded by peers who share their interests and abilities. It is the friendships, just as much as the learning, that makes kids want to return to Spectrum year after year. |
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Fun!
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Given the innovative curricula and camaraderie among classmates, Spectrum classes are more than just exceptional learning experiences; they are fun! Survey responses often highlight Spectrum’s enjoyable course content, enthusiastic and encouraging teachers and the excitement of living on a college campus. Whether students are outside writing poetry, in the lab analyzing DNA or off campus visiting with a newspaper’s editorial staff, Spectrum students are reminded that learning and fun can go hand in hand. |
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Enrichment and Evaluation
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All students receive a narrative evaluation. The evaluation includes course grades and credit earned, comments on the student's performance in class as well as student strengths, areas in need of improvement and student work habits and attitudes. Evaluations are sent to families approximately four weeks following completion of the last Spectrum summer session, and they serve as helpful tools for choosing future enrichment opportunities. |
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next: Student Work
