Educators Prepare For School Year, New Challenges

DUBLIN, Ohio—In the next couple weeks, tens of thousands of students will begin another school year. While students prepare to head back to the classroom, teachers are preparing for new challenges, too.

NBC 4 reported with the FAST FACTS.

School buses sat quiet outside Dublin Scioto High School Thursday morning. Inside was another story. 

By the looks and sound of it, you would have thought a pep rally was being held before a big rivalry football game.

The some 1,600 people who packed the gymnasium weren’t students, though. They were excited Dublin City Schools staff members.

“It’s fun to feel the energy that all the teachers have to talk about their summer, to talk about how they prepared for the new school year,” said Cyndi Brewer, choir director at Dublin Coffman High School.

While a new school year brings excitement, the choir teacher of 32 years knows it also brings new challenges.

“A lot of times it’s challenges in technologies and what they’re asking the teachers to do, new programs that we want to implement. There’s also some learning we have to do in classes,” she said.

During her keynote address, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Deborah Delisle addressed even bigger issues facing all schools in Ohio such as education reform.

“We know education reform has taken hold across the state of Ohio, and whether we agree or disagree in whole or in part with the governor’s plan for reform, one thing is indisputable: At least in my 30 years in Ohio, and that is suddenly education is at the center of everybody’s conversation,” Delisle said.

She also spoke of the quality of Ohio’s graduates.

“Business and industry continue to push back at education. They let us know on a daily basis they remain concerned about the quality of our graduates, all of our graduates and that’s concerning to me.”

During her speech, she emphasized just how important of a role teachers play in their students’ lives.  “(Students) come in all sizes with all kinds of problems, some of which you will never even know about, but one thing about which you can be confident is they will enter your schools next Tuesday, Aug. 25, and they will rely on you to show them the way to a brighter future.”

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