LEE COUNTY, Fla.– At the Sanibel School on Sanibel Island, it’s been a year unlike any other for math teacher Stephanie Yanik.
“I’ve been teaching for nine years in different states and never had a year quite like this one,” she told NBC2. “It’s been a wild ride.”
Hurricane Ian hit the school hard, forcing staff and students out of the building – and into another school – for months.
“It was definitely torn up,” Yanik recalled. “Everything was off the walls. The floor was all disheveled, the ceiling was missing.”
It’s not all repaired just yet, but it is fixed up enough to bring everyone back into the building.
But as Yanik’s students explained, it isn’t a building that makes up a school, anyway. It’s the people. And for them, a big part of that is her.
“She’s one of my favorite teachers and she’s one of the reasons that this school has been intact through the hurricane,” 7th grade student Joshua Schwartz told NBC2.
“Even though times have been hard and stuff like that, she still maintained her personality and (is) making everyone comfortable,” 7th grade student Olivia Burns added.
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Yanik’s bubbly personality not only helps her connect with kids – it helps them learn, too. She’s found a way to make math, of all subjects, exciting for students.
“It is possible to make math fun – because math is fun,” she said, smiling. “It’s a challenge and it’s something you do have to strive for and you may have to study for, but when you get it, that’s when it’s the fun part.”
Yanik knows that this year, fun has been needed more than ever. Some of her students even lost homes in the hurricane. Being a stable source of support for them has meant everything.
As a teacher, that’s as golden as it gets.
“I would like to thank her for making the classroom a very exciting place to be,” Burns said.”When you wake up and you’re ready to go to school, I’m happy for my 7th period.”
“A lot of uncertainty and a lot of new things were happening for the students. A lot of changes. And that can be hard,” Yanik said. “I try to set a nice routine, be always welcoming, be warm, be there as a sounding board for any issues that they are having. They are going through a lot and some did lose their homes completely and that’s hard on them and it impacts them. So I want them coming to school to be a very positive experience.”
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