Many Roanoke, New River Valley teachers already hard at work

For weeks, teacher Peggy King has scoured stores and websites for all things superhero: books, decorations, trinkets.

King won’t see her new students at Salem’s G.W. Carver Elementary School until after Labor Day.

She doesn’t even officially report back for duty herself for another week, but that hasn’t stopped her from spending time this summer planning and preparing for the new school year.

“I’m really big into the theme thing. I go a little overboard,” she confessed, as she described her classroom, which she has been working on for weeks.

Like other area educators and many across the teaching profession, King has put her own time and money into back-to-school prep.

Area teachers said that without doing the extra work, their official first week back would be chaos. It’s a time that is packed with meetings and professional development, leaving little time to plan, prep or even shop for back to school.

“If I had to wait to the first week of school, I could have been there until midnight every night,” said King, a longtime educator who is teaching at Carver for the first time this year.

Moving into a new building has made this year’s preparation especially time consuming . She has had lots of unpacking and cleaning to do, but said it’s important for her to have her room and lessons ready to go.

“I think the more you can get them involved right away, and they have ownership in their classroom, it just gets them excited about learning,” she said. “I know it gets me excited about it. I’m so excited about going back.”

When her students arrive, they’ll be greeted by colorful displays and neat rows of desks, and they’ll get to know one another by making themselves into superheroes, including dreaming up what their superpowers will be.

“I think it’s just a way to really get kids excited from the beginning,” she said.

Roanoke Valley teachers said many educators put in extra time, particularly at this time of year. A 2012 report from Scholastic and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that surveyed 10,000 public schoolteachers showed that educators work 10 hours and 40 minutes per work day, on average.

The National School Supply and Equipment Association reports that teachers, on average, spend $149 of their own money on supplies, $198 on instructional materials and $138 on other classroom materials. It also estimated public school teachers spend $3.2 billion on educational products, $1.6 billion from their own pockets.

“We love kids and we want to help them be successful in any way that we can. Putting extra time in and spending the extra money makes it better for them,” King said.

She’ll even be back at school next week to do some work. The self-described perfectionist said she has a few more things to do.

“I don’t think people really realize how much time and how much above and beyond, even in the summer, that teachers spend on getting ideas for their classroom, creating things to go along with curriculum and doing so many things on their own,” she said.

In nearby Roanoke County, where educators return Monday, teacher Elizabeth Mills was in her classroom working a month in advance. The extra early approach is part of her strategy.

“I try not to work that week before school starts so I can come in fresh,” she said. “I like to get it done well before the week before.”

Mills, who teaches kindergarten at Masons Cove Elementary, said she busied herself with fixing bulletin boards, throwing away items she didn’t use anymore, setting up desks and organizing everything .

“During the school year everything gets messed up bad,” she said.

Mills said she’s just not sure people know what it takes for teachers to be ready on the first day. If not for her prep work, it would be chaos.

“It would be panic. It kind of happened a couple years ago,” she said, explaining Masons Cove teachers moved into a new building and didn’t get in until the teacher work week. “It was all boxes. That’s an extreme time, but it would be sheer panic for me … I can’t imagine going back and not having started.”

Neither can Roanoke teacher Latasha Suggs.

Sitting in her nearly finished classroom a few weeks ago, she laughed when asked what it would be like if she hadn’t put in the extra time.

“I’d be stressed,” she said, taking a break from her work. “I don’t think I could get it to the point I want it.”

She said the first week back is busy enough without having to get a classroom in shape.

The Monterey Elementary School teacher, who is also the Roanoke Education Association president, said lots of teachers work in advance. She reported back to school Monday and will welcome students this week, but was in her classroom weeks ahead of time.

When she came in for the first time this summer, everything was packed and most of the furniture was crammed into a corner of the room. Suggs said she unpacked, arranged and uncluttered.

After three or four days of work in her classroom the desks were arranged (with textbooks neatly stacked on top), bulletin boards neared completion and the walls were covered in posters.

“A lot of people say we have summer off, but teachers are doing other things,” she said, adding that getting her room in shape was just part of what kept her busy this summer.

Suggs also said she took courses during the summer, including one on digital storytelling she hopes to use in a lesson during the first week of school, and upped the hours at her part-time job. She also took time to stock up on school supplies.

“Teachers are constantly in school mode, even over the summer,” said Suggs, dressed casually for a day of work in her classroom.

She wore a T-shirt that read: “I teach. What’s your superpower?”

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