Texas Teachers Preparing For Unprecedented Challenges During Coronavirus Pandemic
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas ISD 9th grade teacher Jada Weathers said the last few months have been incredibly trying.
So as her summer break started, she took some time for herself.
"I was able to fully rest," she said. "I was able to get the resources that I need so I can make sure that I'm a healthy human being. "It's easy to pour from an empty cup when you're an educator, but that's not what's going to help our students.
As the fall semester approaches she feels ready to take on new challenges and knows there will be plenty of them.
"I would say that I'm about 80% prepared," she said. "I had to work with my department to really come up with a game plan as far as how can we still help students and provide them with the content, while also being very aware of like what can be going on at home."
Weathers is one of more than 500 Teach for America teachers working in DFW.
Often times her students don't have adequate access to resources and opportunities.
As the TFA teachers get ready for next school year, those who are entering their first and second year of teaching are now participating in a special training to prepare them for next year.
"We are working closely with all of our local districts and partners to know what they need," Teach for America Dallas-Fort Worth Executive Director Rea Foster said. "We can leverage our national network to pull those materials together and quickly sometimes more so than our local districts."
"There are teachers - specifically TFA - who are going to go above and beyond to make sure that our students for the fall have everything that they need and so that is exactly what I'm excited for," Weathers said.