Teachers are back in the classroom. Soon students will be too

Lauren Garcia’s second grade classroom is thoughtfully organized, with numbered bins, colorful circles on the floor and child-sized desks, each one already stocked with a new literature textbook.

The first day of school for Albuquerque Public School students is Wednesday, and teachers have been gearing up, learning about new curriculum and preparing classrooms for the start of the semester. Teachers’ first official day back was last Thursday.

“We’re doing a lot of professional development,” Garcia said.

Her classroom has doors connecting it to three other classrooms, and teachers are prone to popping in as they prepare for the students’ first day.

On Tuesday, Garcia will meet with her new students during an open house. Parents will also have a chance to drop off school supplies. Some of her 23 new students are already familiar faces, Garcia said, as she’s seen them in visits to other classrooms or around the halls. She has been teaching second grade at Osuna Elementary for at least nine years.

At the beginning of her career, Garcia worked with fifth graders and first graders before she ended up in a second grade classroom.

“I was like, ‘Wait, I love this,’ because there’s a sweet spot of innocence and independence still, that you can still engage them in different kinds of innocent ways and motivate them. But then they do have this independence that they can then go and apply on their own, and you see so much growth in a year’s time,” she said.

Facilitating community is a big part of Garcia’s job. During a daily morning meeting, the students all will sit in a circle and share their highs and lows with the class, or just listen to their classmates.

“If something big happened … maybe it’s a birthday or maybe it’s a death, we’re able to address that, and that’s what builds our community. We’re able to celebrate students when they have successes,” she said.

Like most Albuquerque Public School teachers, Garcia started preparing for the new school year at the end of the previous school year, when she met with her fellow Osuna second grade teachers and started breaking down how to meet the next year’s goals.

“We look at writing rubrics and different things to make sure that we’re meeting feedback from those other teachers below and above us to make sure that we’re driving our kids to where we need to go,” Garcia said.

Her classroom will be almost the same as last year, although there are some new phonics books thanks to a grant secured by a group of teachers.

One challenge for teachers this year will be new literacy instructional materials, which they have gotten some professional development on already.

All APS K-12 schools have new instructional materials in English language arts and math, according to APS spokesperson Martin Salazar.

“We’re a little bit feistier” because of it, Garcia said.

While she’s only recently been trained on it, Garcia is excited about the new instructional materials because it seems like students will be able to dive deep into different story elements. The curriculum seems like it will meet students where they are, she said, and give them a full picture of the skills they need to build. The new literacy materials will be blended with an existing phonics curriculum, which teaches kids about sounds and spelling, she said.

Osuna gives teachers autonomy to implement the new curriculum in a way that works for their classroom, as long as they meet the skill set goals, she said.

Between last school year and the kickoff to this one, Garcia did take some intentional rest over the summer, and even followed the advice she gave her students by taking some time to read.

“Every year we give so much of ourselves, and teachers put their hearts into their classrooms, and we really live with our class for that school year and beyond,” she said. “We hold all of the little hearts on our heart as well. Because we carry all of that and we love them, it’s almost like a little breakup. ... I’m always like, ‘this group will never be together in the same way again.’”