Ring, ring goes the bell for a brand new school year
EL CENTRO — Thousands of Imperial County elementary students returned to school Monday morning after more than two months of summer break.
Many teachers at McKinley Elementary, a K-6 school in El Centro, are teaching different grades this year.
Carol Hunt, who has been teaching for 33 years, 32 at McKinley, moved from teaching kindergarten to second grade.
“Kids (in second grade) are more mature and better behaved,” Hunt said in explaining what she observed after the first day of school. “They are eager to learn and know what to expect.”
Hunt is known for her infamous whistle, but said she has misplaced it.
Hunt said one reason she moved to the second grade was another teacher wanted a kindergarten class.
“I just love it,” Hunt said. “The timing was right.”
Moving to second grade also allowed her to reconnect with many of the students she taught in kindergarten.
“It’s wonderful to see the growth and maturity of my kids,” she said, “I knew about half of them.”
On the first day of school, Hunt had her students create name teepees for the desks to help them get to know their classmates.
Unlike kindergarten, she said most of her students are able to write on their own.
“I told them how to spell,” she said. “They knew what the letters were.”
Karla Trejo, a fifth- and sixth-grade special education teacher at McKinley, moved to the school last year after two years at Calexico High School because she wanted to work with younger students.
“I wanted to be an elementary teacher since the beginning,” she said. “It was difficult (moving to an elementary school) last year, but this year I knew what to expect.”
She said the first day of school went very well where the students in her class made name tents.
“It was for them to get to know me and to get to know each other,” Trejo said, adding she has 18 students — 12 boys and six girls — in her class.
She plans to use strategies to prepare them for junior high and beyond, including teaching them how to take notes.
Berta Delgado, a teacher for 20 years, is in her second year of teaching sixth grade after being a second grade teacher for many years
“Today was awesome,” Delgado said. “It was the first year where I did not have the time to sit down.”
Delgado’s class had 36 students, one over the prescribed limit due to a high influx of students enrolled in the school.
She said teachers can only do so much.
“I expect students to take the challenge to be better prepared for the state tests and junior high,” Delgado said.
On Monday, students were told the procedures in the classroom as well as the rules for both her classroom and the school.
“Every year, I try to make it a brand new year,” she said, adding that each year stands on its own.
Cheryl Griffin-Oliver, who has taught third grade at McKinley for two years, after having previously taught third grade in Dubai for eight years.
On Monday her classroom had icebreakers to introduce the kids to their classmates, as well as informing them of the school expectations.
She uses positive behavior intervention strategies for positive reinforcement.
“We do not yell at our students,” she said.
She said each school year is different, so she uses a clean slate with no baggage.
“We can’t get bored,” Griffin-Oliver said. “We need to mix it up.”
She said every student is different and wants each one to reach their own potential.
She also said that since she does not speak Spanish, her students will be immersed in English from day one and will partner Spanish-speaking students up with those who are bilingual when needed.