DYSART UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
INCOMING FRESHMEN CRUISING THIS SUMMER TOWARDS HIGH SCHOOL SUCCESS ABOARD SS DYSART SUMMER CRUISE CAMP

EL MIRAGE – April 7, 2008 – The transition to high school for incoming freshmen can be as easy and fun as boarding a cruise ship for Southeast Asia. The students needn’t worry about traveling to either coast – after all, they don’t have a driver’s license yet!  No, this ship sails from Dysart High School!

Welcome to the SS Dysart Summer Cruise Camp – where incoming students at Dysart, Valley Vista and Willow Canyon High Schools learn the ropes about high school life while bonding with future classmates and teachers and enjoying heavy daily doses of fun over a two-week period.

“Admiral” Jim Heinrich, who teaches photo imaging and graphic communications at Dysart High School when he’s not piloting the ship, said the idea for a virtual cruise developed following a trip by four Dysart teachers to a 2006 Model Schools Conference.  Heinrich said nearly every workshop discussed the importance of freshman transition programs –ways to help incoming ninth-graders cope with the anxieties of being with the “big kids.”

The teachers left the conference determined to parlay two small existing grants into a solid freshman transition program. The teachers agreed that it was time to set sail on an incoming freshman cruise.

In spring 2006, the group recruited academic, Career and Technical Education and elective course teachers to develop a framework for the SS Dysart’s maiden voyage. The curriculum centered on forming “an itinerary” filled with hands-on projects in each of Dysart’s five career pathways (engineering & industry, communications & arts, human & social services, health & environmental sciences and business & marketing). 

“We wanted to prepare the students for their first year of high school so that they would get to know each other, they would get to know the teachers, they would know all the buildings and the programs and they would have a lot of fun in the process,” Heinrich explained.

A daily lesson plan was developed tying closely to the cruise theme and incorporating:

• The integration of academic skills
• Developing student ties to one of the five career pathways
• Transition skills needed for high school success
• Promoting school spirit and teambuilding

Heinrich stressed that each activity had to be fun as well as educational, and finish with the creation of a product.

Over the years, camper activities have ranged from setting a formal table and developing food centerpieces representing their current “Port of Call” (tying in the district’s culinary arts program along with social studies); completing a cruise ship fitness obstacle course, taking part in a Ports of Call scavenger hunt or testing their “high school survival skills” in a riveting game of Jeopardy.

Along the way, each cabin (comprised of six to eight students along with a teacher “cruise director”) have the opportunity to earn points and recognition based upon their success in each day’s activities.

The SS Dysart will set sail again this June.  Heinrich said approximately a quarter of the incoming freshmen at all three high schools take part in the program, which he stresses is on a “first-come, first-served” basis.

It all can ensure “smooth sailing” for students embarking on their freshman year of high school!