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Monday, Jun. 1, 1998
Voyager program offers hands-on learning
Odem-Edroy ISD joins innovative summer program for first time this year
By STEPHANIE L. JORDAN
Staff WriterTapping children's boundless energy, helping them find answers and challenging their curious minds is what many educators have aimed to do for decades.
Odem-Edroy Independent School District officials think the Voyager program, offered this summer for the first time, does just that.
As they do every year, elementary school districts will open their doors to teach summer school classes. Many programs are aimed at helping kids catch up to their peers. Some make already smart kids smarter, but there are only a few programs open to all.
That is one benefit of the Voyager program, said Odem-Edroy ISD Superintendent Charles Zepeda.
The Voyager program brings together children of all learning levels in first through eighth grades, breaking the classes down by age group. In each age group, a different exercise is completed by all the students, who are given different roles.
For instance, second-graders take a trip back to the Ice Age. The students will learn about archaeology, geology and the environment through computer programs.
Seventh- and eighth-graders will use a computer program to create a new city. Those students will research some of the world's oldest cities and visit museums and libraries through the computer. Still others may race across North America or visit Mars. Others may witness open heart surgery.
The exercises are stimulating and so much fun for the children that they learn without feeling as if they are in a traditional schoolroom setting, said Julie Lyle, senior vice president of corporate communications for Voyager.
The program, based in Dallas and administered to 200,000 students in 38 states, is a rarity in today's education, said Kathy Christie, policy analyst for the Denver-based Education Commission of the States, a national group that helps each state's educational policymakers improve education.
Voyager, offered this year for the first time in Odem-Edroy ISD, costs about $1,300 per classroom, with an average of 18 students per class. For the five classes in Odem-Edroy ISD, the approximate cost to the district is $6,500, plus teachers' salaries.
The actual cost to a district varies greatly and can be affected by teacher salary, class size and the charge sometimes passed on to parents to enroll a child in the program, Lyle said.
Education materials are provided to the school districts, but the program concentrates on aiding teachers who may have limited resources. Teacher training is a requirement of the Voyager program.
``Teaching children in an innovative way, in a way that challenges them and is exciting, isn't new, because good teachers try to do that every day and always have,'' Christie said. ``There's always been a push toward making learning more relevant and fun and at the same time make sure it's educationally valuable.''
Making learning valuable and fun and keeping a child interested is a challenge in today's society, Christie said. Education competes to hold a child's interest. One of Voyager's founders knows that all too well.
As a youngster, Voyager co-founder Randy Best had attention deficit disorder before educators understood what that meant to a child, Lyle said. Now a businessman, he tries to keep children interested in learning through Voyager. So far it has worked.
The ultimate goal for educators is to prepare students for the future, Lyle said. The problem now is that children need to be taught differently, and educators are struggling to find the way.
Lyle said a child is typically told to sit by himself at a desk, do his work, not look at his neighbor's paper and turn his assignment in. The smartest kids are put in classes for accelerated learners. The children who need extra help are put in smaller groups with more teacher interaction. Fast-forward to that same child entering the work force.
``They get a job where they have to work with other people on a team,'' Lyle said. ``They're sitting next to some guy who doesn't do well, or the smartest in the office, yet they haven't learned how to work with them. They fail because they haven't learned how to look at their neighbor's paper.''
The Voyager program in Odem-Edroy schools is free to those who registered, and is paid for in part through a state grant, Zepeda said. About 75 percent of the students there qualify for the free lunch program. Many of the parents in the district wouldn't be able to afford to send their students to the program otherwise.
``Many of our children here are poor, but don't know it,'' Zepeda said. ``All they know is that they can do anything they want to do. We try everything we can to teach them that.''Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web