strangerthan

There have been quite a few ups and downs as we struggle to design a new school program.  Some of the struggles involve having to maintain the current program while building a new, completely different one.  The two programs are opposite of each other and it's requiring some serious mental gymnastics to address both situations adequately.  This week, however, there have been some positive happenings.  The district admin who has oversight over our new school venture seems to be paying attention and offering assisstance in important ways.  I am not sure I will have a job after the end of the first trimester, but for the first time (in the six weeks since school has started) I feel there is some sympathy from upper admin for our plight.  It has been a drag having to go to work every day wondering if the school will be shut down.

The first two pictures are from UCA Camp at University of Utah. 

Today I had a great experience in my World Lit. class. We are currently reading A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier and today we discussed chapters 17 and 18. These chapters show Ishmael softening and becoming human after spending five or so months in a UNICEF sponsored rehabilitation facility. It is such a lovely, true story about the resilience of youth. Previously, my tenth graders debated whether or not these boy soldiers could ever re-enter society; if they could ever again act with decency. Many of my students felt these boys were forever ruined and that there was no hope for their futures. Today was a chance to talk about how human beings deal with emotional trauma. I watched my students' faces as I described some of the ways children cope with extreme emotional trauma. I watched compassion and empathy swell in their eyes and I saw them connect with the experiences of a boy from Sierra Leone they have never met. There was not one student in that classroom who wasn't able to feel their own emotional hurts, understand the ways life has hurt them, and see that their was hope for their own healing. It was the most genuine cross-cultural connection I could have hoped for. My small town tenth graders are now certain that there are more similarities between them and children in Sierra Leone than there are differences.  It's a place to start.

Last night the girls cheered for their first football game of the season. It was a wonderful debut. All the girls did a great job. We all worked really hard this summer and it seems to have paid off!