WESLEY CHAPEL, Fla. — Sometimes we just get those teachers who we click with right off the bat.
"Ms. Hoch is just one of the best teachers that I have ever had, I just love her," laughed Madison Matziere. "If I was having any bit of a bad day. I knew I could come to Ms. Hoch and everything would be ok. And I feel like that is something really good to have at school, especially this being my first year in high school. It was definitely nice to transition with someone like that."
This upcoming tenth grader is talking about Justine Hoch, who is a Spanish teacher at Cypress Creek High School in Pasco County, Fl.
What You Need To Know
- This week's A+ Teacher: Justine Hoch
- Hoch teaches Spanish at Cypress Creek High School in Wesley Chapel
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Hoch said her students are very special to her, which is why on their first day of school she tells them all one thing.
"I told them at the beginning of the school year that nobody loves them as much as I did," said Hoch. "This was the first day of school. I didn’t know any of them yet. I didn’t know them from a hole in the wall.”
She has been a teacher for eight years now. She knows the trust bonds between a student and a teacher will come with time. Bonds that she needed to rely on herself when she got a tough phone call this past school year.
"She got the call while she was in our class that her grandmother passed away," said Matziere. "She took the call outside and she came back in and finished the entire lesson for our midterm the next day without letting anything affect her.”
“My kids from the beginning sort of look to me to be strong and to kind of just keep pushing through no matter what. I didn’t even think about it, I just thought, not to let them see me completely break down," said Hoch.
She taught her kids strength and obligation that day; two qualities her students would need to get through their next trial -- coronavirus.
“I wanted to teach them to persevere and to keep pushing through no matter how difficult things get. And the one thing that I have always tried to instill in my students is that I don’t care where you come from, education is the one thing that can genuinely change your life," said Hoch.