Summer for public school kids in Broward County is ending early this year.
School starts on Monday, and that means it’s time to get ready, for students and teachers. We saw teachers preparing their classrooms Tuesday at Flanagan High School and at Harbordale Elementary School. Former paramedic Lisa Bruce is reviving the health science course at Flanagan, teaching what she knows.
“To me, I’m still saving lives, I’m just saving them in a different way,” Bruce said.
So what’s it like to get ready for that first day?
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“I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little nervous!” she said with a laugh.
Down the hall, Ebony O’Neal was setting up the student government room. She sponsors SGA and also teaches theatre, and she’s still pumped for the start of school.
“Always exciting because you never know what the year is gonna bring,” O’Neal said.
O’Neal said teachers might feel some pressure to maintain the school district’s newly earned “A” rating.
“It also begins a great challenge of challenging myself as an educator to stay innovative, to stay great and keep it interesting for them because let’s be honest, school is not easy for all students so just gotta reach everybody, try to, at least,” O’Neal said.
From big kids to little kids, the grade level doesn’t matter for teachers, they’re going to be excited about getting back into the classroom.
“Of course, it’s still exciting, I think every good teacher gets butterflies the night before when they’re gonna meet their kids,” said Kristina Dixon, who teaches fifth-grade language arts at Harbordale.
Like other teachers we spoke to, Dixon supports the district’s tougher cellphone policy.
“I think it’s good to put the phones away and not have them in the classroom because they cause so much distraction to the kids,” Dixon explained.
Her colleague, Noel Morgado-Santos, teaches second grade.
“Every single year it’s a new adventure for a teacher even though I have been working for 29 years, every single year I’m coming back with great motivation, ready to meet my new students,” Morgado-Santos said.
Getting ready for school is more than getting classrooms ready for students. These days, teachers are going over the testing data on every child so they know what weaknesses they need to target. Veteran teachers are ready for whatever the school year throws at them.
“It’s a passion, you have to have a passion for it, you have to have a love for it,” Lisa Bruce said.
