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Chandler Unified teachers offer hope ahead of new school year

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Posted at 5:00 AM, Jul 20, 2022
and last updated 2022-07-20 08:23:57-04

CHANDLER, AZ — It's back to class for Arizona's second-largest school district!

It's the first day for students in the Chandler Unified School District.

Teaching is not an easy job -- not by a long shot! But ABC15 sat down with three teachers in the Chandler District to find out what makes them so passionate, despite the challenges.

"Just going to work every day and impacting children's lives is huge, and I've always been very passionate about it," explains Bethany Halligan. She has roughly a decade of teaching experience but is new to Chandler Unified. "You get to start with this blank canvas at the beginning of the year and mold them into awesome kids who love to learn. That's my favorite thing to do."

"I'm just so excited to be able to make a difference in these kids' lives," says Madison Tavis, who will teach first grade this year. "A lot of them don't have the support they need and I want to be able to offer support for these children who may not have it."

"These kids were facing a lot of difficulties in their lives," says Lauren Coady, who will teach fourth grade. "I just loved being there for them. They came to me with a lot of things and I had to figure out how to work through it. But they taught me so much about resilience and they wanted to learn and be there even with everything going."