Teachers new to Charleston County get a first-hand look at the communities where their students live

All of the nearly 200 teachers who are new to teaching or to Charleston County schools got on school buses today to learn more about the areas where their students live.

Some principals have done these kinds of tours with teachers in the past, but this is the first time the school district made sure all of its new hires did so. Teachers were grouped by geographic region, from Mount Pleasant to Hollywood, and they spent more than an hour seeing different communities.

It was an important activity because teachers sometimes drive only to and from the area where they’re teaching, said Melissa Matarazzo, a former out-of-state teacher and principal who’s now the district’s executive director of achievement and accountability. And many new teachers aren’t from here, she said.

“It weakens your teaching because you’re not cognizant of the environment in which your kids are growing up,” she said.

Read more in tomorrow’s Post and Courier, and get the latest education news by following @Diette on Twitter or go to Facebook.