By Dawn Baumgartner

Archives Reprint

   dawn.baumgartner@roanoke.com

   381-1671

    BLACKSBURG - A week into elementary summer school, Robert Milliron's students already knew what their teacher expected of them. They imitated his calls of "let's go, folksy-wolksies" as he gathered them back into Harding Avenue Elementary after recess. They fetched a piece of trash from the playground without question. And at the end of the day - or the morning, anyway, as school is held from 9 to 11:30 a.m. - they put away their pencils and paper and looked to Milliron.

    "How do we go down the hall?" he asked his class of eight rising third-graders.

    "Quietly and in a straight line," they answered in unison. Then they picked up their backpacks and filed out silently to waiting buses.

    Milliron loves this, his first teaching job after spending a career as a law enforcement officer with the National Park Service.

    There are 144 students in the Blacksburg strand of Montgomery County's elementary summer school program, 115 at Harding Avenue Elementary and another 29 at Prices Fork Elementary. More county programs are held at Auburn Elementary, Christiansburg Primary, Falling Branch Elementary, Belview Elementary and Shawsville Elementary schools. The sessions are designed for students who need reinforcement and to maintain skills learned during the school year, not just for those who didn't make the grade. Students are recommended for the program by teachers and parents. Programs focus primarily on language arts and math.

    At Harding Avenue, students are grouped into different color teams, under the theme "2004 Olympics of the Mind." The session, which began June 28, culminates with an activity-filled "Olympics Day" July 22.

    "We're trying to make it fun, like camp, so the students enjoy it," said Anne Phelps, the program's lead teacher. As lead teacher she doesn't teach, but rather directs the program - problem-solving, packing lunches and organizing bus arrivals and departures. She spends most of her time at Harding Avenue, which also includes students from Gilbert Linkous, Margaret Beeks and Kipps elementaries. Every other day she checks in on the Prices Fork Elementary students.

    This job is new for her, too. She's a guidance counselor at Blacksburg High School and is pursuing an advanced degree in educational leadership from the University of Virginia. Leading the program is her internship. Phelps is used to teenagers, so there have been a few surprises this month, she said.

    High school students head straight for their buses when the final bell rings. Elementary school students are led to their buses and need to be told which buses to board. Elementary students cry on the first day of school. They also hug their teachers.

    "It's all so new to me," Phelps said. "I just love it. They tug on your clothes to get your attention. They give immediate feedback. What's so nice about this age is they have no barriers and are responsive to everything."

    New teacher Ashley Hughes graduated from Virginia Tech in May and sees the summer session as a chance to get ready for August, when she starts teaching at Dublin Elementary in Pulaski County. Hughes is a product of Montgomery County Schools who graduated from Christiansburg High in 1999. She teaches kindergarten at Harding Avenue this summer.

    "I really like being with little people. They make me laugh at things that aren't funny to adults but should be," she said.

    Milliron said he should have become a teacher at the beginning of his career. He led several educational programs for children through the park service. Now, he said, he wants to teach for the rest of his working life.

    "At this level, you can still make a difference. They're eager to please, respectful and want to learn," he said. When his students finished eating their lunches outside, he told them he was proud of them for leaving the playground clean.

    "They believe in me as I believe in them," he said. He said he's so enthused, he does worksheet assignments along with his students.

    There are 144 students in the Blacksburg strand of Montgomery County's elementary summer school program.

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