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April: Reflection & Rejuvenation
Photo courtesy of Nikki McClure’s 2010 CalendarIs it just me or are the months of 2010 flying by?
Let’s see what I’m most proud of in March:
- First, I managed to make it through a really stressful month pretty unscathed. Wow. Just looking back over my calendar makes my stomach clench. I had a film crew in my classroom for two days, I had to attend a very heart-wrenching family funeral, I had to speak at the school board meeting, I had to produce my neighborhood newsletter, I had to take a difficult ESL certification test, and I traveled to Indiana, West Texas, New York, and Boston.
- I also
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Laissez les bons Temps Rouler
My friends and I are busy planning our ten-year Teach For America reunion. Almost ten years ago, we arrived in South Louisiana ready to help work toward the closing of the achievement gap.We’ll be heading to Baton Rouge for the reunion (I taught in a small, rural town called Franklin). On Friday night, we’ll be having a Black Bean Burrito night (one of the rituals of our impoverished teacher selves!). Saturday, we’ll do a service project at a school (and we’re inviting our former students to volunteer with us!). That afternoon, we’re having a crawfish boil (which my vegetarian self was never particularly fond of) and then traveling to … Read More
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Ah, Summer
Even though I’m in my eighth year of teaching, I’ve honestly never had a real summer break. The first summer, I won a grant through the National Endowment of Humanities to study Utopian fiction in the Bay Area. Pretty amazing, but definitely not a lie-around-and-wallow-in-your-pajamas kind of summer.The next summer, I worked as a Corps Member Advisor at the Teach For America summer institute in Houston. The next summer, I moved from Louisiana to Houston and taught summer school at KIPP. The next summer I did two weeks of professional development in New York, taught summer school again, got my classroom ready, and then traveled to nine Guatemalan cities … Read More
