I'm Maria Silva, your host.

A new school year is underway for the Clark County School District.

More than 294,000 students headed back to class in early August, and so did district staff for one newly hired teacher.

The first day was her first day officially teaching third graders.

But it was not her first day at this school.

I started teaching last week.

It was my first week teaching ever, and I teach third grade.

I was nervous at first, but I thought to myself that I'd been here before I went to school here.

So I started going here in kindergarten on my way here all through fifth grade.

And then I came back as a teacher last week.

So it's been pretty fun to see all the people that I knew, teachers that I had when I went here.

I work with them now, so that's been pretty fun and cool to see that.

This is my 16th year teaching in Clark County School District.

Yes.

So she started teaching when I was in first grade.

And so I went to school while she was teaching and her first year.

And I saw and I heard from a lot of people what a great teacher she had.

All my friends wanted to be in her class and all of her friends wanted their kids to be in her class.

The advice I gave her before she started was to create relationships with her students, to make sure that she knew them and knows their interests because they will learn from someone that they like and know that cares about them.

teaching is super complex and even if you're in a really good teacher preparation program, it's not possible for them to teach you all the things that you need to know.

I think the most important thing is setting up routines and procedures with students.

If you're just focusing on those for the first three or four days, I'm perfectly happy with that because that will pay dividends for the remainder of the rest of the 174 days that we have of instruction.

I can imagine it's a bit of a surreal experience for her walking through these halls and being in those classrooms that she was in as a student here.

I am so proud that you've chosen this career path of teaching as a hard and sometimes thankless job.

But you're going to do great at it.

And I know that your little group of 18 is so lucky to have you this year.

And I am so proud and grateful that you've chosen to work at Iverson so you can make a difference in the communities you've grown up in.

Mother, daughter, Teachers.

I love this story.

Well, Principal Kent Sabo says the Iverson Elementary community comes together each school year to welcome and prepare new teachers like hope.

In addition to her mom, Hope also has an experience educator who is now her mentor.