From June 20 - July 29, 2011, Duval County Public Schools will host several free summer school opportunities for our elementary, middle and high school students in need of promotion or credit/course recovery.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Our Teacher of the Week is a fourth-grade teacher at Hendricks Avenue Elementary and a former Teacher of the Year at the school.

The school year is winding down to a close, but students in Christa Ritchie's fourth-grade class remain engaged and excited about school and their current projects.

"She's a really, really fun teacher and she does really good things for us," said fourth-grader Ollie Desmond. 

"She's fun and she cares about us," said fourth-grader Annie Vodenicker. 

Ritchie truly does, even taking a few to dinner sometimes to reward great gains in the classroom. "I want to make sure they feel like they're cared for and someone's always there for them. Even when they go to middle school and high school, they can always come back."

She's also a teacher's teacher, stepping in to help whenever she's needed. 

When San Jose Episcopal Day School (SJEDS)Third Grader Miriam Abikhaled heard about the tornado victims in Hackleburg, Alabama, she knew she had to do something.  Abikhaled, who has relatives in Alabama, was compelled to help the victims of the only F-5 tornado to hit Alabama during the tornado outbreak on April 27, 2011.  Hackleburg, a town of only 1500, was completely demolished.  While larger cities, like Tuscaloosa, were receiving a lot of national and regional attention, not much was being done to help with residents of Hackleburg.