Telling teachers that “we support you, we believe in you – and we are standing with you,” Virginia Beach Education Association president Trenace Riggs welcomed Virginia Beach City Public School teachers back to the classroom today during a convocation address shown at each of the city’s schools.
Watch the video, and read the text of her remarks:
I’m Trenace Riggs, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, and we are VBSchools, where Great Dreams Need Great Teachers.
As teachers, we all know that we make a difference and inspire our students. But sometimes, we have to do the dreaming for our students until they learn to dream for themselves.
And I could share hundreds of stories about our great teachers, because there are so many of them. We have the best of the best here in Virginia Beach.
Since I know you all have much to do as you prepare for the new school year, I’ll just share one – Kate LaRoue, a World History teacher in Tallwood High School’s Global Studies and World Languages Academy.
As part of the Put Kids First campaign, she inspired her students to take on the cause. One of Kate’s students said if she wanted things to change, she needed to do something about it. So that student inspired and recruited other students to join her at the Put Kids First rally in Richmond earlier this year. And that effort was instrumental in making the Virginia Beach delegation one of the largest among thousands of people there, and they made their voices heard.
As the president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, please know we support you, we believe in you – and we are standing with you.
Now go inspire your students to dream.