Spring Creek Elementary School has always felt like home for Alex Gonzalez, and the proof is hanging in the entry way to her fourth-grade classroom.
A throwback class picture from the late ‘90s shows Gonzalez and her fellow fourth-grade classmates beaming toothy smiles for the camera. The picture was taken at the Bonita Springs elementary school where the 31-year-old has now been teaching the past four years.
Her Starbucks-themed classroom is down the hall from the room where she once sat as a student, the same campus where she met her husband while they attended the K-5 school.
Walking the halls gives her a “sense of normalcy” — something she and Lee County public schools’ nearly 6,000 other teachers are trying to replicate for the children, whether they are being taught in-person or through virtual means this fall.
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“It’s totally different this year,” said Gonzalez, who admits feeling a “little nervous” for the challenges the school community will face this year.
“I think once we get into it, I think some of those nerves will go away, but you always have, no matter the year, first-day jitters,” she said.
Most teachers returned to work this past week to begin setting up their classrooms and to start learning new safety protocols, technology how-tos and methods to address the social and emotional needs students may come back to school with after months out of the classroom.
In March, the rise of the coronavirus led schools nationwide to pivot instruction from the classroom setting to virtual or distance learning at home. In Southwest Florida, Aug. 31 marks the first time in five months that students have an opportunity to learn in-person.
The Lee County school system gave families four options to choose from for the new school year: a traditional in-person model, two virtual options and parent-led homeschool.
While enrollment continues to change daily, the district said about 41,700 students want to learn face-to-face, a model of instruction that in the last two weeks has become more popular than either of the district’s virtual models.
Results of the district’s commitment survey at the end of July showed just 31,522 students were signed up for in-person instruction, which adds up to about 41% of students.
Teachers were also asked via survey about their preference on how they would like to teach in the new year — in person or virtually. Of the 5,000 responses, about 66% wanted to teach in-person, said Superintendent Greg Adkins.
“The good news about the way the students selected and the way the teachers selected is that we think we’re going to be able to make that match in the majority of cases,” Adkins said.
In early July, the district welcomed about 350 new teachers into the fold. Although the district is continuing to recruit people, Adkins believes the school system has “enough people” to start the year.
“I do anticipate on the first day of school we’re going to see schools that are overstaffed and schools that are understaffed, and we’ll have to do some shifting back and forth,” Adkins said.
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While teachers are already back to work, they will be asked to sign off on the recently negotiated changes to their work contracts sometime during the first week of school.
Throughout the summer, educators have been asking questions about what going back to school looks like for them in terms of their job requirements, pay and coverage for when they get sick or need to quarantine due to the virus.
Negotiations between the teachers’ labor union and the district wrapped up earlier this month, and teachers have been sent a copy of the memorandum of understanding that outlines those changes.
The 15-page document, accessible on the Teachers Association of Lee County’s website, is “quite extensive,” and highlights the temporary changes to the teachers’ work contract, said union president Kevin Daly.
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“It covers everything from the virtual meeting option for teachers who don’t necessarily want to go to faculty meetings with the rest of the staff to kind of keep the numbers down and give them that option to what happens if you are ordered to stay home,” he said.
Daly said the memorandum reads like “a mini contract,” which is why he often refers to the temporary changes as the teachers’ “COVID contract.”
He said employees covered by the union will vote on the changes hopefully via an e-ballot sometime during the first week of school.
Meanwhile, teachers and other school-based staff are back at work, putting in place changes to make the school year as safe as possible.
At Spring Creek Elementary, physical changes to the rooms and hallways can already be seen.
Signs urge students to keep their distance from one another. Teachers’ desks, cubbies and bookshelves are being moved out of classrooms. We’re ready to go racing.” ESPN presents NASCAR season at Daytona International Speedway across its multimedia platform with two weeks of comprehensive coverage of Speedweeks. buy generic viagra cheapest viagra australia Long-lasting temporary tattoos are more than just a tool for spammers and e-businesses. By changing tadalafil cost one’s lifestyle habits from negative to positive, one can reap the benefits in the bedroom. viagra tablets usa cute-n-tiny.com Moreover, working in ICU for 15 years I lost two patients after “liver flush.” Finally, by comparison with other inner organs, pancreas is mostly vulnerable for toxic damage. And student desks are now lined up in spaced-out, forward-facing rows, a departure from the norm of cluster seating for what educators refer to as “cooperative learning.”
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Normally, first-grade teacher Mary Jean Cooper has her students “up and down and altogether” during the day, giving them the ability to move around the room and work one-on-one and in small groups with each other. She would also seat them on the carpet as a group for activities and reading.
“I’m a little bit nervous to see how things will work out for us. Nervous about not being able to be as effective at my job because I really take a lot of pride in what I do, and I want to do what’s best for the kids,” she said.
Cooper, 49, plans to give kids more time for brain breaks, where they can take a few minutes to stand, stretch and dance around. Cooper, who is in her 27th year as an educator, has faith teachers and kids “will figure it out” as they go along in this new experience.
The main thing for her is just making sure parents and students know the schoolhouse is safe.
“Me as their teacher, the assistant principal, the principal, all the other teachers and staff members around here — we’re doing whatever we can to make sure their safety is top priority,” said Cooper.
When asked if she personally feels safe to be at school, Cooper answered “a little bit.”
“I have been trying to kind of push it to the back of my mind,” she said. “I haven’t given it a lot of serious, serious consideration because it’s one of those things that if I think about it too much, it will make me more nervous than I want to be.”
About two-thirds of Spring Creek’s kids will come back face-to-face, which is a little over 400 students. Around 240 others signed up for Lee Home Connect, a live, virtual instruction model.
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First-year teacher Denise Castro, 24, is starting out as Lee Home Connect instructor for second-graders at Spring Creek.
She spent time this week decorating the boards in her classroom. She is looking forward to putting up student work, pictures and a birthday board as families feel more comfortable sending their children back for in-person instruction.
Students opting into Lee Home Connect can change to face-to-face learning after the first nine weeks of school, or at the discretion of a principal.
“I want them to know we have been working super hard to implement safety rules and procedures so that you can come back so that this can be that place that you remember it as,” Castro said. “That this is that place you can go to for 7.5 hours and just focus on being a kid and not worry about any stress happening at home or anywhere else.”
The new protocols will take time to learn and adjust to, she said. But Castro believes “it should all run smoothly” with some practice.
For now, she’s just eager to meet her students.
“I can’t wait to hear how they’re doing and see their smiling faces,” she said. “I am just ready to get started.”