TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — TUSD schools are getting ready to open in about a week we talked to teachers about how they prepare their rooms and how they prepare themselves for that first day of school.
At Carrillo K-5 Magnet School, Kindergarten teacher Celina Morales says, “The minute they walk in the door, as soon as they come in, they're not sure who I am, and I'm trying to build that relationship with them. So the excitement is ‘Who are you? How do we get to know anyone?’”
Celina Morales loves the first moments of the first day of Kindergarten. She knows she and her students are sizing each other up— and at Carrillo, school is a completely new experience for many Kindergartners because they may not have been to any Pre-K classes.
She sees learning as a team effort that involves her, her students, and their parents–and the parents may learn kindergarten is very different from what they experienced twenty or thirty years ago.
“There is no resting, no napping. We are here to understand. Not only are we learning all these foundations, but we are building them so that we can get to that testing mode, which is big in our state.”
Students are used to school by the time they come to Monique Peralta’s Fourth Grade class, but she knows the first time her students walk in her room it still has to be special.
“That they're going to walk in and feel automatically that this is where they belong. They're going to feel comfortable. They're going to feel like this is going to be the perfect classroom for them.”
She thinks despite all the change from the internet, smartphones and social media, that 4th graders have not changed much over the years—that they are still eager to learn and want to feel that their teacher is someone who cares about them.
“And it's something that I don't ever want to stop doing until the day I retire. I just want to keep doing this and don't want to move on to other things. I want to be right here in the classroom with the kids, making a direct impact.”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
