Star Teacher of The Week: Holley Sweet of Westside Elementary in Clewiston

This weeks’ Sabrina Katz Star Teacher is Holley Sweet, who has many years of teaching under her belt—but the pandemic is challenging her in ways she never expected.

She’s finding creative ways to keep her fourth-graders engaged— in and out of the virtual classroom.

Holley Sweet teaches at Westside Elementary in Clewiston and in her 15 years of teaching she says this is by far one of the most challenging.

“This is the first we’ve experienced anything like this—I mean hurricane days are one thing but this is another,” said Sweet.

She is also dealing with additional struggles with some of her students.

“They don’ t have access to the internet. I get phone calls from them and that’s tough or a text message and occasional face time,” said Sweet.

The challenge reminded her of the empathy she wants to impart to her students.

“I do think teaching children to have more empathy with each other because not everyone understands everyone’s circumstances,” said Sweet.

But with the students she does meet online— she brought the fun with a scavenger hunt.

“I played along with them so one would say go find something and we would take off and run but I lost every single time because they’re much faster than I am,” said Sweet.

And to remind them they were not forgotten she organized a parade complete with signs and banners and drove by the students honking horns and showing support.

If you would like to nominate a teacher to be the next Star Teacher of The Week you can submit their information to Sabrina Katz Facebook page here.