You’ve had time away from teacher’s voices, we wanted to empower them to welcome our students and families back to school.
The countdown to the first day of school is on! Teachers in Washington’s charter public schools are excited to greet students and ready to begin a successful year of joyful learning and community-building.
In case you aren’t feeling quite ready to say goodbye to summer break, give these snippets a listen. We are incredibly lucky to have such dedicated, passionate, and mission-driven educators across the state at our 18 charter public schools!
Oh, I love the kids. That’s why I do this. You never know what’s going to be said or done. And it always keeps me on my toes, in good ways, and challenging ways.
My day is never the same, I might have a consistent schedule, but it’s always different. I mean, the school in particular, is just truly just beautiful and fascinating to me. It’s just with it’s being all inclusive and supportive of special-ed is just huge. I love a lot of things. But I’m here for the kids. It’s great to have support of coworkers and very supportive admin.
Emilie Chavolla | Pinnacles Prep (Wenatchee, WA)
I absolutely love the connections that I am able to have with my students. I love, love, love the small school feel where we all know, all of the students. It’s not like there’s anybody who teachers are like, “Oh, I just don’t really know that kid.” You know, it’s just like, nobody gets lost.
Because we have dedicated staff, and then a program that lets us get to know our people, which I think is needs to be the heart and soul of education is relationships. We genuinely do [care]. That is absolutely the truth. You know, we’re not in it for the money…but we’re here for the mission.
Anni Evans | Pinnacles Prep (Wenatchee, WA)
I love that I get to learn and grow with them. You know, I think a lot of times, one of the things that I try to do is to show the students that teachers are human. And so it’s cool when they teach me something or we’re talking about a topic that is new to me, or they’ll bring something into the classroom. Sometimes we take detours, where I’ll hear them say something, and I’ll just ask a random question. And then we’ll just all start talking, and then we’ll try to bring each other back.
But I just love seeing students… I would say, students and people, as humans we’re like seeds. And in order for a seed to grow, it has to be cultivated with water, sunlight, and the more care that is given in different environments, like different classes, you continue to get cultivated, and you grow into a beautiful flower. So I love watching the process of them come in like “I can’t do that” shy to opening up being more social, helping each other out. And literally just feeling like this is a safe place to be themselves.
Nakeya Isabell | Why Not You Academy (Des Moines, WA)
