Parents get to teach for a day at Brawley school

Despite having a lesson plan as reference, parent Carolina Cortes-Ramirez was still nervous about the prospect of lecturing a room of first-grade students at Myron D. Witter Elementary School about liquids and solids.

But Cortes managed to make it through with her smile — and wits — intact using a PowerPoint presentation in a lecture with her 6-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, in attendance.

“I was a little nervous, yeah,” she said. “Being in front of the students is kind of nerve-wracking.”

Cortes was among 30 to 40 adults who volunteered Thursday for the first time in teaching the small pupils about science-related topics.

The event involved the entire first-grade class of about 240 students, along with 10 teachers who kept an eye out for classroom decorum.

The rotating lectures took place in six classrooms for a school function that was the brainchild of Principal Debra Hale.

First-grade teachers chose science as the theme for the daylong activity, Hale said.

The event provided the adults, most of whom were parents, with the unique opportunity to know what it is to be a teacher, but Hale said it also served another purpose.

“The idea is to build that relationship between the home and the school,” Hale said.

Tabitha Quirarte, who taught a group of students about nature’s food chain, said she volunteered her time for 6-year-old niece, Annmarie Zacharias.

While she strained to get the attention of all the students during her lecture, Quirarte said she enjoyed herself.

“It’s a lot of fun to see exactly what they’re learning,” Quirarte said of the students. “Yeah, definitely. I think they should do more of these.”