Student Stories: A New Orleans Classroom Chronicle
Students at the Center is a 12-year-old writing and digital-media program for students in two New Orleans high schools, co-directed by educators Jim Randels and Kalamu ya Salaam. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Gaining Access to School Boards
Today’s excerpt from The Long Ride, Students at the Center’s collection of student writings on the history of civil rights and social justice struggles in New Orleans, continues the theme of teachers seeking quality education and social equality, often in open conflict with their school boards.
Education
Opinion
Firing Teachers Then and Now
The Students at the Center program started at McDonogh 35 High School, which is mentioned in today’s entry from The Long Ride. Brittany Thompson, who wrote the essay below in spring 2005, was entering her senior year at McDonogh 35 when Hurricane Katrina hit.
Education
Opinion
Writing History for Elementary School Students
Gabrielle Turner wrote the story featured in today’s blog in the summer of 2003 as part of an eight-week, eight-hour-a-day summer of work and training that Students at the Center produced for 30 young people: about 20 9th through 12th grade students at Douglass and 10 of our graduates from Douglass, McDonogh 35, and McMain High Schools.
Education
Opinion
Jackie Royster's Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change Among African American Women
We were glad to hear from our good friend Jackie Royster today, in her comment on the “Finding Home at School” entry. Jackie and her colleagues at the Bread Loaf Graduate School of English have been great allies in our work.
Education
Opinion
Intentional Learning and Political Communities
In June, 2007, 50 teachers from the three major types of public schools in post-Katrina New Orleans (the state-takeover Recovery District Schools, the local system’s New Orleans Public Schools, and charter schools) gathered for a weekend workshop on equity and collaboration in the new landscape of education in New Orleans. The conference was co-sponsored by United Teachers of New Orleans (AFT Local 527), Concerned Educators of New Orleans, and the National Coalition for Quality Education in New Orleans (NCQENO).
Education
Opinion
Student Writings as Supplemental History Texts
Douglass High School was full of activity on MLK Day. Volunteers from across the city and nation organized by Hands On New Orleans, InterFaith Works, and the Frederick Douglass Community Coalition helped with projects such as painting, landscape, and courtyard renovation.
Education
Opinion
MLK Day
Adriane Frazier, who has worked with Students at the Center as a high school student, college intern, and staff member, wrote this essay when she was a junior at McDonogh 35 in our SAC writing class. It is one of many essays by former students that we still study. We hope you appreciate it, as our current students do, on this Martin Luther King Day.
Education
Opinion
School Choice?
One fear we have about public education in post-Katrina New Orleans is the over-reliance on simple solutions. Many of our policy makers have touted “school choice” as the primary approach that will make our schools better.
Education
Opinion
Life in Housing Projects, Part 2
Yesterday in class when we talked about posting Tyeasha’s essay on this blog, some of the students suggested sending Kenneth’s essay on the same topic. Kenneth’s a senior at Douglass. He attended a different public high school in New Orleans before the storm.
Education
Opinion
Blank Windows at Home and School
Today we feature a writing on the same theme of returning home to New Orleans after Katrina. This essay is by Tyeasha Green, who graduated from Douglass in June 2007. The story of Tyeasha’s graduation illustrates some of the struggles all students and schools have had in public education in the last two years.
Education
Opinion
Finding Home at School
Welcome to the Students at the Center (SAC) blog, where teachers, students, graduates, and friends from our school-based writing and digital media program will reflect on our experiences in public education in New Orleans.