Today the air near Morgan Hill’s 13 public schools might smell a
little like Crayolas, sharpened pencils and new sneakers. For
better or worse, school is back in session.
Today the air near Morgan Hill’s 13 public schools might smell a little like Crayolas, sharpened pencils and new sneakers. For better or worse, school is back in session.
The night before the first day of school happens in much the same way as Dec. 24, teachers have said; A nervous stomach-tingling, an overactive brain that won’t calm and a sleepy smile on every parent’s face. It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
“It is like Christmas. I don’t sleep,” said Shelly Guerrero, a fifth-grade teacher at El Toro Elementary. “You get those dreams like the kids do, that you show up to school without shoes on,” she said from her classroom last week. Guerrero had tied the bow on her classroom, the books were nestled all snug in their desks while visions of summer vacation had long been put to bed.
Guerrero and fourth-grade teacher Denee Lewis beamed with a cheerful dispositions when they spoke about the first day of class. The women, both mothers of two daughters, have taught at El Toro for 13 and three years respectively.
“Every year is different. It’s always a fun surprise. It’s a similar feeling (to Christmas), you’re wrapping gifts, preparing lesson plans. You prepare and prepare and then the big day is here,” Guerrero said. “That’s a good way of putting it,” Lewis said. “I get nervous, too.”
While the unseasonably cool weather of this month looks and feels a bit like September, the Aug. 17 start comes about a week earlier than previous years. The district also moved the start to its one-month summer school from June to after July 4 this year, in order to keep the lessons fresh in students’ minds, Superintendent Wes Smith said in July.
Another change at MHUSD will be the class sizes. After a $2.9 million budget deficit struck the district this year, kindergarten through third-grade classes will increase from 20 children per teacher to 24 children per teacher. Since fewer teachers are needed when class sizes increase, the district’s eight elementary schools had to move teachers around or create combination classes.
Thirty-three precautionary pink slips were delivered around the district, though no full-time teachers were laid off thanks to MHUSD’s offering of a retirement incentive that proved to draw enough older teachers and keep the jobs for the less-tenured teachers.
On an overcast summer morning, El Toro was as quiet as it might ever be – only Guerrero’s two daughters and Lewis’ two girls balanced the adult conversations with “Mommy’s” and sweet pleas to go to the swimming pool.
Hours are spent pouring over lesson plans and tweaking ideas from the year before to prepare for the year. Guerrero and Lewis compliment each other as they talk about their favorite lessons. Sharing ideas is encouraged around the district, they say.
“Our doors are wide open. Every teacher is a resource,” Lewis said. When she made the transition from the patience-demanding job of teaching kindergarten to teaching fourth-grade at El Toro, Lewis sought the help of a seasoned educator at Nordstrom Elementary School. Lewis said collaborating with her colleagues is “essential to helping my children.” Personal pronouns are frequently used by teachers.
“I get to know my kids really well,” Guerrero added. In the first week of school, she sends out a letter to parents asking for their child’s strengths, weaknesses, their personality – the more she knows, the more it helps her students.
Lewis and her new class will make an “All About Me” book so both she and the children will learn more about one another. They can write anything they want about themselves – no “fill-in the blanks” for this project. Lewis likes to allow the children to create signs about basic English or mathematics concepts, instead of force-feeding the children information when they walk into the classroom. When they design a sign for the class together, Lewis has found, they absorb the information with better understanding.
“This is what I always wanted to do as a young kid. I always wanted to be a teacher,” Lewis said. She delights in helping children.
“They search the books for sentences written in a beautiful way,” Lewis said. It is a lesson in how to use more interesting adjectives and verbs than fourth-grade standards such as “We went to the beach,” she said. “Describe the waves, the ocean, did they crash? Did they swell?” Lewis said.
At the high school level, Ann Sobrato High School 10th-grade geology teacher Heather Marshall said engaging parents in their students’ progress can’t be taken for granted.
“If the parents will support their kids and give them time to study and make them study, and really work with the teachers that’s the best way to help,” Marshall said. Today will mark Marshall’s first day as a teacher at Sobrato. She’s taught for 14 years – mostly high school geology – and recently moved from the Sacramento area to take the open job at Sobrato. Despite the need to make a few more photocopies of worksheets, Marshall was raring to go for opening day.
“I get so excited that I don’t sleep well. I keep going through my checklist. I did it when I was in school and I still do it as a teacher,” she said Monday afternoon.
Besides planning the lessons for the first week and onward, decorating and organizing the classroom is all part of the job. Though if you’re a teachers’ child, that chore sometimes works itself into their summer schedule. Eighth-grader Hillary and fourth-grader Abby, Guerrero’s right-hand helpers, sit atop desks in their mother’s classroom. All 33 desks now have a new pencil, notebook and folder thanks to the girls. The classroom looks immaculate; not a remnant of paper on the carpet or book is out of the place in the classroom’s corner library. The white board already has the week’s homework schedule ready to go.
“I love (having my mom at school) when I’m feeling bad,” Abby said. She can stop by and see her Guerrero for some TLC; “That’s awesome.”
“It comes in handy when you need help, she knows how to help you,” Hillary said. “She’s willing to stay up all night because she knows how important homework is,” Abby said.
For Lewis’ daughter Sydney, who will start kindergarten today, some of the more superfluous details are the most memorable in a 5-year-old’s psyche.
“I got a sparkly blue backpack – blue – sparkly blue,” Sydney said.
