Miami-Dade teachers ready for the first-day deluge – NBC 6 South Florida

By this point, classrooms are ready for the deluge of students.

School starts Thursday morning for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and teachers all over the district spent the last few days organizing and decorating and preparing their classrooms.

“Students come excited, and they come nervous, but what they don’t know is that teachers are also excited but we’re also nervous as well, I am super excited, I get to have my old students from last year but I also get to meet brand-new students,” said Adriana Rascon, who teaches math at Southside Preparatory Academy, a K-8 in the Brickell area.

Heather Fuentes teaches 5th grade at Southside and said her biggest first-day challenge is building trust with her students.

“I want them to think of me as their extended family, and so that is what I want to create in my classroom, the feeling of belonging and the feeling of being just excellent students and having that social-emotional well-being taken care of,” Fuentes said.

“Well I teach middle school, and middle school kids are silly and awkward and shy but outgoing and still kids so my first week is always just team building, they’re gonna be doing group activities, challenges,” explained Susan Zamora, who also works at Southside.

The challenge of getting up and running quickly is amplified for third-grade teachers like Eustache Cella because it’s a “pass or be held back” year.

“It is very challenging for both sides, yes, for the parents and for the teachers, what we do is we give 100% to make sure we get the best out of them,” Cella said.

At the high school level, teachers are worried about politics intruding into teaching. Eddie Cruz teaches AP English at Jose Marti MAST Academy and says his students want thought-provoking discussions.

“The state legislation hasn’t really helped us but in the classroom, you gotta rise to the level of your students, gotta find ways to keep them interested, excited and learning,” Cruz said.

Susana Zamora is also concerned about Tallahassee peering over her shoulder.

“As an English teacher, yes, very much so, not loving the book bans, not loving the limitations, but at the end of the day, we do what we love, we work to help kids grow and learn,” Zamora said.

So some teachers are wary of the politics of the moment but also determined to do their best to make every single student feel comfortable and welcome, and also, to make sure each of them is learning the curriculum.