As families are getting ready for the first day of school on Monday, Broward County Public Schools teachers are doing the same thing; this is their time to prepare for the incoming tsunami of students.
Every new school year brings new challenges. For music teacher Dina Linero, it’s all about integrating about a hundred more students.
“It makes for a fun, exciting music class!” Linero said.
The district closed Panther Run Elementary School, and many of its students are now heading to Linero’s school, Silver Palms Elementary.
“We do icebreakers at the beginning of the year for all the kids to get to know each other, to make sure they’re making friends and feel comfortable in the school,” Linero said.
Another example of change: Plantation High School is now Plantation 6-12 Academy, but they still have the reigning Broward teacher of the year, Dr. Saima Sanaullah, and she still gets excited about starting a new school year.
“As a teacher, you are able to impact each and every student, not only in my classroom but also on my campus, just meeting them, seeing them, and motivating them, that’s the greatest part of it,” Sanaullah, a science teacher, said.
Even veterans in the profession, like English teacher Brittney Drane, get butterflies as opening day approaches.
“Well, nerve wracking, because you don’t know who’s gonna come in the room so it starts out kind of scary, then you see all the students and you kind of talk to the students and you realize they’re way more nervous than you are so it’s exciting but definitely, the nerves can be there,” said Drane, who teaches at Plantation 6-12.
Broward County Public Schools has a near-total cellphone ban, partly because data nationwide shows kids are not reading enough, and Drane sees it in her classroom.
“So it’s more so motivating the students to want to read more as opposed to focusing on the negative point of them not reading at all,” Drane said.
How’s their comprehension?
Drane laughed and said, “Well, the comprehension is different! These kids want to be on their phones, on their screen, they don’t even interact with one another, so it’s definitely difficult but I do believe that in the classroom you’re able to kind of shift it, so that’s my focus.”
Her focus will be on improving reading comprehension, and that’s likely to be the focus of teachers all over the country, a sign of the times in which we live.