ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Courtney Bennett is moving into her classroom inside the walls of Tyrone Middle School. Among the tubs of textbooks, she said there’s a method to her madness.
While her students are getting ready to come back to classes, it’s also her first day as a teacher.
“It wasn’t something that we were six years old. I’m going to be a teacher,” she said.
And answering the question, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” wasn’t a straightforward answer for Bennett.
“I really struggled my first semester of senior year trying to figure out, ‘I’m applying to college, what am I going to do?’”
Courtney Bennett shares her excitement for her first job out of college while setting up her classroom at Tyrone Middle School. (Spectrum News/JT Lynch)
Trying to find her own career path, she looked up to people closest to her.
“My older brother, he is an English teacher for high school. But my mom has worked in the school system since I was in third grade. My dad actually worked at Pinellas Technical College for the past couple years. So, we are all somehow involved in teaching,” Bennett explained.
You could say that her love for education is in her DNA. And she realized her safe space was always at school.
She’s excited to spend her first school year teaching math to sixth and seventh graders.
“I’m ready for the unknown, which is very unusual for me. I am a chronic overthinker and I’m always like, ‘Well, what could go wrong?’ But I really feel like USF did a wonderful job at preparing me for my first day of school as a teacher by myself,” Bennett added.
And hopes her students can be like her, finding where she belongs inside the classroom.
Bennett will make her full-time teacher debut this Tuesday, August 11 at Tyrone Middle School.