Standing O: Maria Ruiz helped her students feel loved from a distance

Ruiz began her teaching career last year, at age 34.

By Brian McMillan
| 11:26 a.m. January 4, 2021

Maria Ruiz is often at school by 7:30 a.m. and doesn't leave till dinner time. Photo by Brian McMillan

Palm Coast Observer
Your Town

Maria Ruiz has 21 children. Two are her own and the other 19, she says, are her students.

A third-grade teacher at Belle Terre Elementary School, Ruiz came to the profession late compared with many of her colleagues, who might have started right after college. Ruiz, now 35, began last year, which was a full decade after she completed her college degree. She spent some time in voluntary pre-kindergarten and was hired as a full-time teacher just four days before school began in 2019. As a result, she often felt behind and put in long hours to make up for it. She felt like she had something to prove.

“I worked crazy hours,” she said, “up till 2 a.m., cutting out laminated things and making new worksheets for them.”

Ruiz made herself available for students’ phone calls in the evenings and would often get questions at dinner time from students who might be stuck on a math problem.

But she didn’t stop there. She also went to a child’s birthday party over the summer. She goes to their sporting events.

"She truly demonstrated unconditional love for our kids."

— SAMANTHA WHITFIELD

“They are really my extended family,” Ruiz said. “I like having a relationship with them. I think I know some of them better than their parents do.”

And at least one parent took notice last year. Samantha Whitfield, who nominated her as a Standing O this year, said Ruiz “changed our lives during quarantine. … She truly demonstrated unconditional love for our kids.”

Quarantine support

When the school district announced that the conclusion of the 2019-2020 school year would happen via Zoom, Ruiz organized hangouts online and contacted each student regularly.

'Crazy organized'

Affixed to the front of teacher Maria Ruiz’s desk in her third-grade classroom is a sign that says, “Does your desk look like this?”

Underneath the words is a diagram showing each student what should be in the desk, where it should be placed, and what color it should be. Stacked neatly on the right: a cursive notebook (green), a social studies folder (yellow) and a science folder (red). In the tray at the lip of the desk, every student has, from left to right, sharpened pencils, an eraser, a dry-erase marker and a highlighter.

“I’m crazy organized,” she said, and she keeps her students organized, too.

When school was shut down in the spring of 2020, students in most classes drove to the school to pick up their personal belongings. Ruiz thought the students were weary of drive-thrus, so she went to the classom and packed up each students' desk in a separate bag and delivered them to each home.

“She allowed the kids to show their classmates their homes and pets to create a closeness we all desired,” Whitfield said. “She cried with them when they were uncertain if they would ever return back to school. She showed compassion like I have never experienced.”

Parents also appreciated that Ruiz created daily checklists for the students, to make sure everyone knew how to keep up during the quarantine.

“I thought about the parents who were at home doing what I was doing—working,” she said. “There was no stop button.”

Ruiz remembered teaching a class on Zoom while her own two children were on Zoom calls with their classes. It was hectic and stressful, and she knew it was the same for the families of her students. The remote learning environment is not ideal for most students, it seems.

“Are they going to hit every standard?” she said. “Probably not, but are they going to know they were loved? Yes.”

A chance to shine

Ruiz said the teachers in surrounding classrooms have supported her as she gets used to her new career. She also mentioned Belle Terre Principal Jessica DeFord, technology trainer Stacy Anderson and then-VPK coordinator Abra Seay, who encouraged her.

Ruiz said she felt some anxiety about entering the workforce after spending so many years home with her own children, but Seay told her, “You did the right thing,” Ruiz recalled. Ruiz added of Seay: “She took a chance on me, and the rest is history.”

“These kids mean everything to me — they really, genuinely do.”