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Summer Camp for Quad Prep Students ONLY at The Quad Manhattan

THE MODEL

The Quad Prep division, at The Quad Manhattan Summer Program, blends the mission of both organizations to serve the needs of twice-exceptional (2e) children in a recreational environment where social/emotional and executive functioning skills develop through interest and talent-based classes. Different than the traditional Quad Manhattan Summer Camp model, The Quad Prep division offers talent development classes at the selection of the child, a decreased ratio of students to teachers per group to 2:1 (rather than 3:1) and thus more support within the classroom (twice the number of psychosocial teachers), longer sessions of talent development, related services provided by Quad Prep OTs, SLTs, and Psychologists, and core integration into talent development (instead of having separate lessons and integration).

 

Children are grouped with their best peer matches from The Quad Prep School, who also have similar interest tracks (STEM or Arts) in mind. Each track, depending on enrollment, will have at least two “peer” groups of children. Program participants will take part in summer-long Enrichment Clusters (Renzulli), chosen by them and week-long project-based courses in their interest area.

TALENT TRACKS

STEM will host a morning of rotating related services while children engage in projects that are based in their interest. These topics can change weekly. These groups will be modeled after Enrichment Clusters (Renzulli) and led by psychosocial teachers, assistant psychosocial teachers, and planned with community experts throughout the camp period. Topics can range from building drones, coding, web and game design, strategy games, animation, and more.

 

Next is a transition time then hour-hour and fifteen minute session with Maker-State instructors and supported by psychosocial teachers and assistant psychosocial teachers. Course offerings are listed below and children can pick one of two for their appropriate talent level:

 

  • Inventors Camp (all ages): Budding inventors will design their own physical and virtual toys, spaceships, spy devices, and anything they can imagine. We’ll create devices like electrically conductive cards and secret messages with CircuitScribe, build touch-sensitive game controllers with the MaKey MaKey microcontroller, and transform play doh into a living circuit. Physical computing = Phun!  

  • 3D Designing with TinkerCAD & Minecraft (grades K-4): Budding designers will imagine and build their own virtual toys, structures, and tools as they learn 3D computer-aided design (CAD) and invention prototyping. We’ll learn the Engineering Design Process and re-create virtual 3D objects we built in TinkerCAD in Minecraft as interactive, expandable--and destructible--structures. Epic fun. Serious skills.

  • Engineering for Invention (grades 5-12): Every kid is a dreamer, a designer, a creator…an inventor! Every morning and afternoon is a new building project: toys, bridges, homemade video game controllers, secret circuit note cards, wearable fashion electronics, a graphite flashlight, and more! This week of invention is all about bringing our imagination to life! And we will be building with other hands-on activities such as Nerdy Derby and Marble Run! Tapping your inner Da Vinci...priceless!

  • OZOBOTS (all ages): (Course description coming soon)

 

Art will host a morning of rotating related services while children engage in projects that are based in their interest. These topics can change weekly. These groups will be modeled after Enrichment Clusters (Renzulli) and led by psychosocial teachers, assistant psychosocial teachers, and planned with community experts throughout the camp period. Topics for these groups can be in fine arts, cooking, music, strategy games, and more.

 

Following the first morning session of Enrichment Clusters will come a transition time and then hour/hour and fifteen minute session with theater and filmmaking instructors and supported by psychosocial teachers and assistant psychosocial teachers. All children will decide on theme, characters, plot, and storyboard. Each child will then have a different role or multiple roles in the execution of an original Quad Manhattan production. Possible roles are listed below:

 

  • Script Writers

  • Actors

  • Set Builders

  • Stage Crew

  • Camera Men/Women

  • Editors

  • Sound Crew

  • Film Scorers

  • more...

 

The day will conclude with reflection and camp traditions.

RELATED SERVICES

Core, OT, speech, and counseling will be contracted through The Quad Preparatory School. Providers will become the team leaders of psychosocial case management and lead all team meetings. Mid-summer conferences will be run by this team, as well as the parents and summer camp teachers.

 

TRIPS

Historically, The Quad Manhattan Summer Program has been a place for children to explore New York City with a team of highly-experienced professionals in the 2e movement and in their fields of expertise. Trips this summer will be throughout the week and based on student choice and projects in enrichment clusters, as well as longer recreational trips to the outer boroughs.

 

Past Trips:

  • Surfer’s Way- surf lessons for children with special needs on Long Beach, Long Island

  • Brooklyn Aquarium

  • Solar One- NYC’s Green Energy Education Center

  • Liberty Science Center

  • Brooklyn Boulders

  • Equine Therapy Farms

  • Governor’s Island

  • Water Taxi to Brooklyn Bridge Park


 

MEET THE TEAM

Director (1): Ana Leon, MS. Ed.

Camp director oversees both divisions of camp.

 

Head Teacher (1 per group)

Head teachers at The Quad Manhattan are psychosocial experts with backgrounds and certifications/licensure in special ed, gifted ed, psychology, social work, mental health, or a combination of two or more of these expertise. This group leader will organize enrichment clusters, follow students to talent development, organize group projects, and accompany students to parks, field trips, and support their psychosocial goals and strategies. The head teacher will manage a caseload of no more than 2 students.

 

Psychosocial Assistant Teacher (2 per group)

Psychosocial Assistant Teachers are former interns or core teachers from Quad programs such as after school and summer camp, or The Quad Preparatory School. These experts in training will work directly under the supervision of the psychosocial team at The Quad Manhattan summer program. They will manage a caseload of no more than 3 students to track psychosocial goals, strategies, and progress throughout the summer. The psychosocial assistant teacher leads regular communication with their caseload and communicates directly with The Quad Prep School related service providers to provide thorough and stable programming that is completely integrated.

 

EACH PREP GROUP (8 students maximum, 3 teachers, and two interns)

  • Head Teacher (1)- SPED/psychosocial (must have at least 1 year experience in either after school, summer camp, or The Quad Prep School)

  • Psychosocial Assistant Teacher (2)

  • Interns (2)

  • Paraprofessionals (X)

  • Specialist Teachers (X)

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