Students will return Wednesday to all schools in the Tehachapi Unified School District, and teachers around the community are preparing for a new year, with new excitement and new challenges.
Among those preparing is Cummings Valley Elementary School’s Stacy Waters, a first grade teacher who is feeling overwhelmingly positive about the coming year.
“I’m feeling great. I’m really excited about this school year,” she said.
Waters has been a teacher for more than 30 years, with 25 of them spent at the district and 22 of them as a first grade teacher. She said that’s been long enough for the anxiety to fade, but not her excitement to meet a new group.
“The first day of school is always the best day,” she said.
She said she’s taught other grades before but first-graders are especially engaged and engaging to teach.
“They’re curious, they’re eager to learn new concepts, they love making new friends and participating,” she said. “It’s just a really fun age group to teach.”
Waters said the school has been decorated with a western theme this year and staff have many events planned around it, culminating in a 5K race at the end of the year.
This year, she said, they are also working on their Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports program, which is aimed at supporting students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional and mental health.
Waters said activities are added in an effort to improve it, and this year will be no exception.
She said they are making an effort to create a warm and welcoming environment for students.
However, the school year won’t be without some challenges.
Waters said this year she and her fellow teachers are prioritizing maintaining and improving teacher-parent communication.
She said she encourages parents to get involved with the school by signing up for ParentSquare for school updates and communication, coming to their Back to School Night at 5 p.m. Aug. 21, or even volunteering if they can.
“Open communication helps us work together for a great school year,” she said.
A teacher who shared her sentiments was second and third grade special education teacher Chris Duff at Golden Hills Elementary School. She said students who come to school with unfilled bellies, little sleep or too much screen time need more attention from teachers.
Duff said teachers will always try to address these issues when they happen, as they can affect students’ ability to learn, but every minute they have with students is valuable, and they want to spend as much of that time as possible teaching.
“Some parents struggle with burdens themselves that make finding the time to address the needs of their child a priority,” she said. “The school staff is so good about offering support and understanding.”
Despite these challenges, Duff said she’s greatly looking forward to seeing her new students along with returning ones who can be a model for their younger peers and help them learn about the procedures and structure of a day in her classroom.
“I’m always excited about starting a new school year, especially with colleagues who feel the same way,” she said.
She said the first day is incredibly fun, but also incredibly important for establishing relationships with students and “laying the foundations of a rapport.”
“Relationship has to come first,” she said. “Not that we’re their friend, but we need to earn their respect. We have to make them feel comfortable that this is their classroom.”
Duff said she feels the school’s curriculum is very much up to date. It has new and improved music and art programs for the district, which she is looking forward to seeing for her students.
As for her own challenges, she said, the school recently its lost learning director, Jennifer Carr, who was an incredible resource for the school and for teachers.
Even so, she said the school’s administration team embraces and supports her and her fellow teachers and continues to be a great resource.
As for her own classroom, she said, students’ screen time in particular, and the effects she believes it has had on their attention span, has become a concern in the last few years.
Duff said students don’t bring cellphones to class, but even then, at-home use, depending on when and how much they get, is having an effect on them.
She said screen-based entertainment has gotten students used to a certain style of communicating information and that school lessons, by their nature, require a higher level of mental rigor and stamina.
These challenges have not prevented her from looking forward to the next school year, she said.
Duff and Waters said they have spent a long time getting their classrooms ready for a great year.
“Saddle up for the best school year ever,” Waters said.
