Wednesday is the first day back for students in Monroe County, and the day before the prep and pep was still ongoing.
“I love having a little bit of peace and quiet to get some things organized and ready,” Tiffany Zepeda said of this past summer at school. “But it’s just not the same place, so kids are what give it the pulse, give it the excitement, give it the energy, and we are just pumped for them to be back.”
The empty classrooms will not be empty much longer as teachers at Key Largo School are putting the finishing touches.
“The biggest thing is teachers' stress of getting the rooms ready," Veronika Valdes, an 8th-grade algebra teacher and math coach, shared with a laugh.
The Hurricane season is on. Our meteorologists are ready. Sign up for the NBC 6 Weather newsletter to get the latest forecast in your inbox.
“We want to make it welcoming and inviting and exciting," she said with a smile.
Valdes said what she’s looking forward to most is a new drop schedule and additional flex periods. Those are classes where you can do yoga, garden, even knit and embroider.
Valdes said it’s what’s helped attendance and engagement.
Local
“They don’t want to miss, and some parents need to make some appointments and those kids are like, no, we don’t want to leave early. They get mad when their parents pick them up early," she said. "When we were younger, we wanted to get picked up early, so it’s a great community and the kids are just so engaged. It created an awesomely positive culture.”
The Title I school is also getting new fields to make space for additional sports programs.
"It makes the kids want to be here, motivating them to not just come to school and be here academically, but be here for the culture for the excitement and the things that make us a better community," said Zepeda, one of the assistant principals at Key Largo School.
The students, as in years past, take their curriculum outdoors. They study fish in the mangroves, observe the seagrass, and learn to appreciate their environment.
Pamela Caputo, the STEAM teacher, shared that with that came a big question they had to ask themselves.
“What can we do instead of cleaning up in the Keys? We live right on the water and straws and trash are constantly flowing into the water. How can we change that?" she said.
This year they are going to. The students petitioned to have their school eliminate styrofoam and plastic sporks. Starting Wednesday, not just this school, but the whole district will be eliminating both.
