BY GWEN HAYES<\/b><\/p>\n
Sentinel Editor<\/b><\/p>\n
Teachers in Hillsborough County officially returned to their classrooms on Monday, August 12, 2013. However, many of them have been in the classroom all summer \u2013 taking additional classes, getting recertified, or mentoring other students. They will open their doors to students on Tuesday, August 20, 2013. Among the 15,000 teachers who went back to work on August 12, 2013, were 800 newly hired teachers.<\/p>\n
Many new teachers to Hillsborough County and East Tampa were treated to a get acquainted breakfast at Middleton High School on Thursday morning.\u00a0 Mrs. Evangeline<\/b> Best<\/b> coordinated the event.<\/p>\n
According to the School District, an estimated 199,800 students will be starting school this fall.<\/p>\n
Debra Dawkins<\/b> Underwood,<\/b> will be returning to classes at Nathan B. Young Middle Magnet Creative Science School.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur principal, APs and teachers have spent a lot of time on making the school appealing to the students. When the students get on the school grounds, the landscaping and scenery around them will make them want to be in school, want to work hard for better grades and that\u2019s what we\u2019re expecting,\u201d she said in her own excitement.<\/p>\n
Because of the resources available to the school, she said, \u201cwe have a really smart group of students and that can be attributed to our Lead Teacher, Ms. Jennifer<\/b> Butler.\u201d Ms. Nadine Johnson<\/b> is the principal at Young.<\/p>\n
As the parent of a 4-year-old son, Mrs. Underwood <\/b>said she\u2019s also excited about her son \u201ctransitioning into the 4-year-old age group. He has been tutored throughout the summer to get him prepared for the next age group. I know he\u2019s ready.\u201d\u00a0 Because of his birthday, little Antwaun, III<\/b> is being prepared to be ready for the next age group.<\/p>\n
Like most of the instructors, Mrs. Tameca<\/b> Johnson (pictured above)<\/b>\u00a0is ready to get back into the classroom.<\/p>\n
“I’m ready to get started!\u00a0 My students can fully expect another year of getting nothing short of my very best.\u00a0 I have a lot of ground to cover with them in the area of Journalism; such as, building confidence and a passion for writing, developing their interviewing and public speaking skills, while helping them also develop a strong knowledge base of current events.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut, I am not alone in this effort to help bring out the best in our children.\u00a0 I am just one in a group of extremely committed and passionate teachers at Howard W. Blake High School who are experts in their craft.\u00a0 They are teachers who do not take lightly being a positive influence for our students and making a lifelong difference in their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Johnson<\/b> is also a parent who is hopeful that her children will receive the same education from passionate teacher that she is sharing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am a mother of three.\u00a0 My oldest is on this same mission.\u00a0 She is a former science teacher and now a first year Assistant Principal at an elementary school in Jacksonville.\u00a0 My youngest two are public school students; and the traits I mentioned are those I look for in their teachers as well.”<\/p>\n
A new teacher to the District is Ms. Maressa<\/b> Hawkins.<\/b> She will be working with 4th grade students at Oak Park Elementary school, where her brother, Pastor Antonio<\/b> Hawkins<\/b> has also taught.<\/p>\n
A recent graduate (December 2012) of the University of South Florida, Ms. Hawkins,<\/b> the mother of 2 boys, said she is excited about starting the school year, a new adventure for her. \u201cIt\u2019s my first year and I don\u2019t know what to expect, but I know God will guide me,\u201d she said. \u201cI grew up in the inner city (attended Edison and graduated from Middleton) and I feel as though I can connect to the kids at Oak Park. It\u2019s my way of giving back to this community.\u201d She did her final internship at Edison Elementary.<\/p>\n
Teaching reading and writing to the 4th graders, Ms. Hawkins<\/b> is also pleased that she will have her 8 and 5-year-olds at the same school with her. She gets to another level of excitement when she talks about some of the other new teachers who she went to school with at USF, and they, too, are on the staff at Oak Park. \u201cIt feels good to be with people you already know and have studied with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theron James, Jr.\u00a0 <\/b>is so proud that he will be entering high school. \u201cI\u2019m expecting to learn more and better things and I know I\u2019ll be learning tougher things.\u201d The 9th grader who will be attending King High School has not decided what he\u2019d like to become, but he has thought about becoming a member of the band.<\/p>\n
His sister, Sierra James,<\/b> will be entering the 10th grade at King High. Studying JROTC with the hopes of entering the Navy after graduation, she said she\u2019s \u201cexpecting more challenges, to do better on my grades; I\u2019d like to get straight \u2018As\u2019,\u201d she said. She involved in the Unarmed Basic Team.<\/p>\n
Theron and Sierra are the children of Theron, Sr. and Annette Daniels James. Mrs. James, who recently earned an AA degree from Hillsborough Community College, and works with the Hillsborough County School District, said she\u2019s happy that the kids will be getting back in school. My light bill and food bills will be going down,\u201d she said with a chuckle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m pleased with how they used their summer, however. It was very positive. Sierra<\/b> is involved with Upward Bound and Theron <\/b>was involved with a reading program, in addition to the reading they do at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso I\u2019m still in school so it will be a very busy school year for all of us.\u201d She\u2019s working toward a degree in education.<\/p>\n
Mrs. James<\/b> had a bit of advice to offer to parents. \u201cPlease pay attention to the CORE program. They are harder for some students, but it\u2019s what they\u2019ll need for the standardized tests. Also, those students who have not passed FCAT still have to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n BY GWEN HAYES Sentinel Editor Teachers in Hillsborough County officially returned to their classrooms on Monday, August 12, 2013. However, many of them have been in the classroom all summer \u2013 taking additional classes, getting recertified, or mentoring other students. They will open their doors to students on Tuesday, August 20, 2013. Among the 15,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}