Summer All Wrapped Up

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
-- Nelson Mandela --


I struggle with encapsulating an entire summer of experiences into a simple blog post. I don't think words are really sufficient to explain everything that I've experienced, endured, excelled at or overcome this summer. Therefore, I suppose, it probably would have been better had I recorded my experiences as they occurred. Remember what I said in my last post though, I still haven't any idea just how teachers juggle their time. I barely found the hours to sleep amid planning and teaching and framework sessions, never mind actually blogging.

As I said before, I spent the summer teaching at Sarah T. Reed High School in East New Orleans. While I'd hate to say that it is one of the rougher schools in the city, it is. Not that it isn't filled with a motivated administration and teachers eager to raise student achievement, it most certainly has both. It also has gang members, overwhelmed teen mothers, drug dealers and those who are frequently high, and students who are generally accustomed to ruling the classroom with chaos. It's a rough place to work, but Reed High also has eleventh graders who read at third grade levels, students who've never been told that they can learn, a higher percentage of special education students than most schools in the city, kids who are convinced they're stupid, and such a lack of excitement about learning that it breaks my heart to see.

Working here this summer, despite all of the stress and anxiety and even a weapons scare, was without a doubt more rewarding than any other job I've ever had. If just one student thanks you for making something understandable and accessible, then you feel like a rockstar. At least I did. I only hope that I can carry that feeling into the coming school year. I want to reach so many more students than just the class I had for summer school.

Here is to the coming year.