SAN ANTONIO -- It was a joyous occasion Thursday at one southwest-side middle school as the school's mariachi band serenaded Christine Bendele before she received the KENS 5 SACU ExCEL Award.
The Ronald McNair Middle School teacher said she embraces her students biggest fears: eighth grade math and algebra one.
Bendele then opened up to KENS 5's Deborah Knapp Thursday about why she left a high paying job to dedicate her life to students.
"I've always loved kids and I've always loved math," Bendele said. "When I was growing up my parents actually told me not to become a teacher because you're never going to make any money."
So she went to work at a bank.
"[I] did some really prestigious jobs and had my own secretary," Bendele said. "And i was extremely unhappy."
So she followed her heart with the goal of building a good math foundation for middle school students.
This is Christine Bendele's 14th year in the classroom.
"Most people come into math and they don't like math," Bendele said. "A lot of them come to me with a block. It's not that they're bad at math because they weren't good at it, my goal is to make them better at math and be successful because they will be."
"I was kind of struggling in the beginning. now i'm pretty confident about math," said James Nino, eighth-grader. "She makes it real fun."
"And if it's not fun, I try to make fun of myself," Bendele said.
Bendele said she chose middle school because she that's where there's the greatest need.
"That's where they really develop that foundation," Bendele said. "And if they don't develop that foundation they're probably going to struggle through high school and probably not make it to college, so I'm here to give them that foundation they need to be successful in math.
