Summer Courses for July 2010

There are three regular members of staff at Rosseau Lake College who are willing to offer summer classes.  They are all experienced teachers who teach these classes during the regular school year.  Since it is difficult to determine what the “profile of needs” is for summer courses, I have listed for each of the teachers, two courses they could offer. 

Final determination of the courses being offered this summer will be in the middle of May when applications have made it obvious what courses are most desired.  A minimum of five students must be registered for a course to proceed.  I have put the standard course numbers used by the Ministry of Education and by all schools issuing the Ontario Secondary School Diploma so that you can speak to counselors at your child’s school and rest assured that the courses we are offering are acceptable to them.

Initial Options for Courses:

Functions 11 (MCR3U) or Biology 11 (SBI3U)

Physics 11 (SPH3U) or Computers 12 (ICS4M)

International Business 12 (BBB4M) or Economics 12 (CIA4U)

English 12 - Several initial enquiries have been made about English 12 as a summer course.  Unfortunately, our English 12 teacher is not available this summer.  Although I am not opposed to hiring someone to teach an English 12 course, if demand is great enough, I want to state my “reservations” before making that offer.

First, English 12 is perhaps the most demanding summer course you can take.  The reading and essay requirements, given the short duration of the course, require that students begin ahead of time and work quite intensely during the course.  Many schools will not accept English 12 as a summer credit, as it is the one required credit in grade 12 for graduation and they perceive it to be watered down by the short time of a summer course.  It is very important that you verify with the counselor at your child’s current school that Eng. 12 as a summer course would be accepted.

Second, because I am hiring an “unknown” teacher for this course, I am leery that should I not get a truly talented teacher (with all due respect hiring is often a “crapshoot” and in four weeks it’s very difficult to correct a mistake) this will be very much to the disadvantage of your children when they get to the next level of their education.  English 12 is an important course and needs to be done well! 

I would, of course, do everything in my power to get a great teacher but it would include housing components that are often as challenging as finding talent!  While we do have housing on our campus, most of our current teachers live there year-round.  So here’s an odd summation; if anyone interested in English 12 has a nice guest cottage available for July, that would make it easier for me to recruit a teacher who could combine a Muskoka holiday for his/her family with a teaching assignment.

Please click here to get an application form for the summer courses.

Thanks for your interest in Rosseau Lake College.  If you have any additional questions, do not hesitate to call me at 705-732-4351, Ext. 11 (although I am rarely sitting at my desk it seems!) or e-mail me at graham.hookey@rlc.on.ca.

Best wishes,

Graham Hookey
Head of School