CLEWISTON, Fla. — It’s all about teacher appreciation at Clewiston Middle School.
As Fox 4’s Hendry County Community Correspondent, I work in this area every day, so the school district knows me - they invited me to see how honoring educators can ignite passion for the school year and help keep them on board during the ongoing teacher shortage.
More than 600 teachers from all over the district danced and cheered as they piled into the gym for the third annual ‘Huddle Up Hendry’ event. Plaques were handed out to high-achieving teachers and schools were recognized for their grade performance. Watch my full report here...
Syreeta Wheeler has taught 3rd grade at Central Elementary for eight years, and emphasized that days like this motivate her, saying, “Teachers tend to get burned out because there’s so many things that go along with teaching, but today makes things more exciting and gives you another boost, another push.”
Wheeler said she brings that energy to the classroom and it improves the way she teaches her students. As Hendry County battles an ongoing teacher shortage, Superintendent of Schools, Mike Swindle, said inspiring teachers like this is crucial.
“We do struggle to recruit teachers simply for housing reasons - that’s an absolute obstacle. But, events like this help, increasing the retention rate does help the fact that we don’t have to go find as many teachers,” Swindle explained.
Heading into his 20th year teaching at LaBelle High School, David Tippett said he can attest to that.
“In 2005 I became a certified teacher. I’ve been with them that long because there’s a sense of family, unity, community,” said Tippett.
Plus, back in May the district said they are working to build affordable housing that only teachers could rent, to attract more to the area.
After the ceremony wrapped up, teachers could attend a variety of workshops to pick up new skills to bring to the new school year.
“This is how we keep our teachers engaged and excited to be in Hendry County Schools. We want them to carry this excitement into their classrooms, back to their students - that’s really what’s gonna’ drive academic gains this year,” said Swindle.
“We’re just going to keep climbing - go Hendry,” said Wheeler.
