If you’re a graduate student like us, summer isn’t just an opportunity to unwind after a long academic year – it’s a time to make progress on your “grad school” to-do list. With unfinished research papers in the cue, new data to analyze, and a part- or full-time internship, it can be tough to get your priorities straight. Here are some tips to help you make the most of your summer break.
Tag Archives: summer
Making the most of your summer break
As some of you know, my graduate school friends and I started a blog just a few years ago called Grad Girl. It was intended as a space where professional women working in the social sciences, social services, research or clinical positions, or anything else related to these fields could be showcased for their accomplishments and achievements. Our intent was to show the world what kinds of jobs there are out there and give a little advice along the way. Well, it turns out, blogging and website maintenance is a lot more work than we anticipated, so we had to shut down the website. But, since we had already put in so much time and effort into it, I didn’t want that precious content to go to waste. So, with the rest of the team’s permission, I will be posting all the content from that website here, for you guys. Here, we begin, with summer break tips for graduate students.Continue reading “Making the most of your summer break”
Summer slump
While driving into work this morning, I was listening to NPR and a story came on about something that has plagued many elementary, middle, and high school teachers for year…the summer slide.
The summer slide is a phenomena where students (especially those who are coming from lower income backgrounds) experience a severe decline in their achievement during the summer break months. One school in DC actually tested this with their students and gave them a test at the end of the school year right before break, and then again right at the beginning of the following school year. The findings show that “when students left for summer break, their reading levels were at about 68-69 percent, and when they came back, their levels fell to about 30 percent.” This is a HUGE change!
Summer slide is an issue that researchers have been well aware of for many years. It has just taken some time for the school boards to enact a change, reasonably so, because the added cost of simply keeping schools in session for an extra 20 days of the school year costs a whopping $5.5 million! While an extra 20 days may not seem like a huge impact, it’s still a step in the right direction with making sure children are learning and spending the majority of their year being enriched and growing their academic skills.
While still a work in progress, it’s so nice to see a change happen at the ground and policy levels that has profound positive implications for children in school.
Tanya Tavassolie 