Lets. Do. This. {Back to School Edition}

The. Greatest. Tour. Guide. Ever. at Independence Hall. 

Every year around this time I get the itch. And the itch is for a return to the palpable kinetic energy of a high school classroom. My summer was amazing, as I was able to make more meaningful memories with my family and friends. That, and spending most of these past two months outdoors is just the thing to get my psyche back in balance. But as August dawns, I once again feel the drum beat of teaching nudging me. 

I am optimistic that I am in store for another amazing year. I can not wait to meet new kids, and get to know their families. I am excited about wrestling with new ideas, and hearing new music ( a huge benefit to teaching teenagers).   And I am excited about planning another field trip in May, taking us somewhere in America - just like Chicago and Philadelphia before. These kids are inspirational, and always help me grow. 

As always, I will try to mix things up this year.  Between the content, projects, and essays - I am always looking for something new.  For instance, in an effort to inspire more curiosity from new angles - my first semester AP World History class will (hopefully) be completing a class read with a fantastic book The History of the World in Six Glasses.  This book attempts to tell " the story of humanity from the Stone Age to the 21st century through the lens of beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola."  In addition, we may take another opportunity to work with UNC Chapel Hill"s Center for International Understanding program, working with a class of high school students in India - something that inspired us all last year.


But mostly, each year I simply become more fully aware that teaching is my passion.  So, I can not wait to get back in the saddle.  I am even excited about grading essays....almost.

Let's.  Do.  This.  

The Problem That We All Live With (Should Schools Integrate?)

In teaching American history, my classes spend a lot of time attempting to gain a more complete understanding of  a variety of supreme court cases.  A few of these cases concern school integration - and I often feel that my educational experience can help shed light on the topic.

As a kid, I grew up in a city (Winston-Salem, NC) that had mandatory busing to integrate the schools. (This was court ordered as a result of the supreme court case Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System in 1970).  The system looked like this: I attended an elementary school that was in the suburbs, where I lived.  African-American kids from the inner city took a 45 minute bus ride out to our school.   For middle school, it was me ( and other suburban white kids) who had the long bus ride to the inner city.  Then, we all returned to the suburbs for high school.  Overall, this system succeeded in integrating our schools.  Until my final years in high school, I never knew that many places in America had an educational experience without mandatory busing.

Since the mid nineties, most cities (including Winston-Salem) have abandoned mandatory busing in favor of magnet school programs - simply allowing for family choice in schools (In Winston-Salem, this has essentially resegregated the public schools there - where one elementary school is almost 100% African-American and Latino, with 98% free/reduced lunch - and another is 88% white, with 15% free/reduced lunch). In addition, school systems are trying numerous strategies to combat the massive gap in test scores between minorities and white students.

The NPR podcast This American Life recently took on crucial questions about our school integration experiment of the 1980s, including:

• Was it successful?  
• Did mandatory integration of public schools help close the achievement gap between minorities and white kids?  
• Is it still necessary to make sure kids of different races attend school together?

As a product of this integration experiment, I applaud TAL for their willingness to wrestle with such a complicated topic.
Click here to hear the podcast The Problem That We All Live With