Teachers are already back in the classroom across Collier County, preparing for students' arrival next week.
"This is my 42nd year of teaching, but the first year I taught kindergarten, I was told by the first-grade teachers, you will not teach the kids how to read. That is our job, and now every kid leaves the room reading," said Carole Beckman, a teacher at Seagate Elementary in North Naples.
District staff tells NBC2 that for this upcoming academic year, a special emphasis will be on communication, writing, and reading.
"My philosophy of mind is, that you've got to show kids that you care about them and be genuine about it, because if that's not there, they're not going to listen to any kind of academics that I might stand up and try to teach them. Being able to attack, any kind of, reading question or writing prompt, to be able to think critically and deeper than just those surface-level types of questions," said Bonita Blackburn, a fifth-grade teacher at Seagate.
Teachers met Tuesday morning to discuss things like scheduling, preparing their individual classrooms, and working on lesson plans prior to the first day of school.
"Today is really a celebratory day as we welcome our teachers back and celebrate the successes from last year. I think it's just been about a week and a half since the state released our district and school grades. We were so excited again to be rated as an A district," said Elizabeth Alvez, the Chief Academic Officer for Collier County Public Schools.
The first day of school is slated for Tuesday, August 13.