Saturday, April 14, 2012

Daily Kos: A Saturday morning look back at a special Friday

Daily Kos: A Saturday morning look back at a special Friday:


A Saturday morning look back at a special Friday

We are now in the final quarter of the school year, and the final quarter of my time at my current high school.  My current students all know that I am leaving, as do many of my former students, several of whom after they heard sought me out to ask if I would still do recommendations for them when they apply to college or for scholarships or summer internships..  I will accomodate all those for whom my writing same would be of a benefit - I owe them that.
Yesterday was a special day.   Several years ago I was contact by a teacher from Australia.  She teaches American History in a school in Sydney, had a particular interest in the New Deal and had received a grant to come to the US to study the New Deal and explore possibly setting up a field trip for students.  As it happens, the school in which I teach is located in Greenbelt, MD, which was a planned community, one of the first done as a Federal project, in 1935, as part of the New Deal.  Somehow she found my webpage and contacted me.  Two years ago she came and spent half a day visiting my classes.
This year she was coming on a tour with students.  She asked if they could visit our school for half a day.  I got permission.  What was interesting is that her students, all 11th and 12th grade girls, wanted to eat an American school lunch - go figure.  My students were amused by that idea.
So yesterday two teachers, one administrator, and 21 students from North Sydney Girls High School, an elite school, spent the morning at Eleanor Roosevelt High School
Each of the 24 was given an escort by one of my female students.  They had a chance to chat, went to first period, then since my 2nd period is free, all 48 joined me and someone else in my room.
Please keep reading.