Intersession: where fun and learning go together

VIRGINIA CITY - When Virginia City High School senior Kelly Smiley told her co-workers at Coconut Bowl in Sparks about the school's intersession program, they couldn't believe it.

"I told them that for one month we just do fun stuff, and they said 'that's ridiculous,'" she said.

The "fun stuff" is intersession, a four-week program between the end of the winter semester and the start of spring semester, which has been in effect since 1999. It combines remedial work for those who need it with extracurricular classes chosen by the teaching staff.

Students can bone up on their reading, math, English or science classes if need be. For those who passed their courses, but struggled on state-mandated testing, preparatory test classes are available.

Those who do well in class and on tests can take garage band, belly dancing or quilting. Or they can do remediation and fun courses, if they only need extra help in one class.

Kelly's fun was in taking teacher Christine Prater's belly dancing class.

"It was new, something I'd never done before," she said.

There are classes in controversy, debate and a class in dilemma, which give students a chance to examine controversial issues of the day.

A class called Comstock Explore will take students around Virginia City and the surrounding historic areas to explore the area's history through mine tours, museums and homes.

"Not all our kids are from the hill," said Principal Pat Beckwith. "Some of the Lockwood kids have never seen these things."

The most popular class was driver's education, which had 25 students. Other courses included: cooking, sewing, costume design, mystery writing, food preparation and multimedia. Several physical education classes are available, like baseball pitching and catching and mountain biking.

The electives are chosen by the school's 14 teachers.

Larry Van Pelt, a science teacher, is teaching topographical maps to about eight students.

"I like maps," he said. "I teach geology and some of it goes along with geology."

In the food preparation class, teacher Barbara Burton said one of the most important reasons she chose that class was to teach students needed life skills.

"Most kids who get out of high school don't know how to cook," she said. "If it isn't microwaveable, they can't cook it and that's a pretty expensive way to go."

The garage band class, featuring four bass players, two drummers, three guitarists, four singers and one keyboardist, is an opportunity for the school's musicians to get together to play, said teacher Matt Breithaupt.

Rich McGregor, a math teacher, chose chess as his intersession elective because of its math component.

"It builds the math part of the brain, the part that uses logic and reason," he said.

Students pair off into tournaments, and as they improve they will begin playing four-way chess, he said.

In four-way chess, there are four colors on an expanded chess board. Red and white are partners and black and blue are partners. The players can't talk to each other but must communicate through their moves.

"If red puts a check on blue, black has to get his partner out of trouble," he said. "Most people who play four-way chess don't go back to two-way, because it's boring after that."

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 881-7351.

Birth of intersession

The whole idea of intersession came from former Principal Todd Cutler, now the mayor of Fernley.

He said he looked on the Internet for new approaches to education, because Virginia City High School had limitations to what it could offer during a traditional schedule due to its small size.

He found a 75-30-75 school year, with 75 days of traditional classes, 30 days of remedial or intensive classes followed by 75 more days of traditional.

"It was fun to get that together," Cutler said. "The staff really worked hard. The kids jumped into it and the teachers jumped into it. It was fun."