A school year is 180 days, with no two days and no two schools exactly alike. The students differ, the teachers differ, school cultures differ. Here, our photographers find what makes our school days anything but ordinary, the people and programs and events that make a difference, school day in and school day out.
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While the summer vacation for kids lasts until early September, teachers begin their school year weeks earlier, often spending time in August preparing their classrooms so that they’re ready to greet students on the first day of school.
At the Washington Irving Intermediate School in Tarrytown, where school starts Sept. 3, fifth-grade teacher Christine Creary decorated her classroom with a theme based on her last name.
Each year, Creary, who is starting her 28th year of teaching, asks her previous year’s students to help choose the theme for the following year. This theme for this year is “Creary’s Constellations.” So by mid-August, she was busy putting up space-themed decorations both inside her class and in the hallway outside the classroom.
“I think it’s important to create a sense of belonging and community from the very first day that they walk in the classroom,” she says. “Having a theme really does bring that immediately, where they know they’re part of something. They’re part of this classroom. They have a place where they know they can be listened to, they’re cared for, and it’s a safe place for them to come every day.”
One floor below, third-grade teacher Christina Miles got started on preparing her classroom in early August.
Miles, who is beginning her 30th year of teaching, took it upon herself to give the classroom a fresh coat of paint, place students name cards on every desk, and create other flourishes such as a board where each student’s best work can be highlighted throughout the year.
“I like to make it homey,” Miles said. “They spend the majority of their time in the school year here, so I want them to come in and automatically feel comfortable and ready to learn.”
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Tarrytown teachers focus on ‘sense of belonging, community’ in classes
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