Teachers have work cut out for them, even before students arrive

Organizing desks, supplies, and lesson plans… a teacher’s list is endless even before kids enter the classroom.

“There’s plenty to do that fills up our day. Getting to know our class schedule, our room is usually in boxes and in shambles,” said Katelyn Durkin, a first grade teacher at Ogden Elementary.

Every year the supply list gets longer, for both students and teachers.

“I’ve probably spent at least one hundred dollars to get the classroom going,” added Tiffany Ivey, another first grade teacher at Ogden Elementary.

Like many other teachers, Ivey and Durkin are busy preparing for a new school year, a year they are anxiously awaiting.

“I love the beginning of the school year. It’s a fresh start,” Ivey said.

“We have first day nerves, I probably won’t sleep that much,” said Winter Park Elementary second grade teacher Jennifer Hatch.

But the start of this new year is also comforting, now that they know budget cuts in the county didn’t leave them out of the equation.

For Jennifer Hatch, her back to school workload has doubled. She’s not only move into a new classroom but a newly renovated school. All the changes at Winter Park will take some getting used to. “We’ll just make do and make it as welcoming as we can,” she said.

So why do they do all this work? “That’s easy, it’s the kids, it’s working with these kids every single day and then seeing those light bulbs go off and seeing their progress. There is no other job like it,” Durkin said.

Something each teacher agrees on, no matter how much work they put into it, success in the classroom can only happen with parental involvement.