In the Lou

On the last day of school, as we were waving goodbye to the kids, I thought about how it seemed anti-climactic. I didn’t have expectations for things to be different, it’s just that they got on the buses and were gone. That was it. The year was over. Done. No frills or brass-band.

Teaching ninth graders, so much of my energy was spent on trying to invest them in themselves on a path toward college. (more…)

My hat goes off to the people who have the loud voices of this school system — the school board members. They present a survivalist political savvy necessary if they intend to actually stop the impending state takeover of the district.

This past Tuesday during the school board meeting, board-member Donna Jones introduced a resolution to revoke the district’s contract with Teach For America. (more…)

Thankfully, today with students went by without too much fanfare. By that I mean things were kept relatively quiet and calm.

Yesterday, I went to lunch with my best teacher-friend. We had joked how we might be of the few who go outside at the end of the day to wave goodbye. At the top of our list of people who might call that too middle-schoolish was Mr. Analogy. He beat me outside!

By 11:00 a.m. things were deathly quiet in the building. I mean this quite literally as the spirit of my school building died today. The structure which delicately glows a historical patina — it was one of the first schools for African Americans west of the Mississippi River — will never again house the St. Louis Public Schools students for whom it was built. (more…)

No matter what happened today, my day was complete. I have such the ear-to-ear grin that I was able to snap a picture of the aforementioned bulletin board in Mr. Analogy’s room.

You really need to click on the picture to see what is written under the words “THE ONE.” Oh this is too good.

I think it goes without saying that this might cross the line about keeping religion out of the classroom. I wonder what type of lens “history” has been told through this entire year.