One Day...

These months are flying by, but I want to be sure I take time to reflect. I have been quite inspired lately--I made some amazing gains with my students; I went to the Teach for America 20th Anniversary Summit with 11,000 other TFA teachers and alumni; and I met some amazing people who really have a passion to change the state of education in this country and around the world.

These times have not been easy--I feel that I am really part of a fight. A fight for justice. A fight to change how people view our children.

Like Andrea, who regularly stays home from school to take care of her mother, her sister, and her niece. Yet, when she shows up to school, she puts every ounce of energy into her work. In fact, after getting the lowest scores on every exam of the year, she put in extra effort, stayed after school, and made years worth of progress in just days.

Or Devon, who is labeled as the "bad kid" by most teachers in the school for his disruptive behavior. Yet he committed himself to learning and scored above most of his peers on his past benchmark exam.

Or Mariela, who said at the beginning of the year, "I will never get an A in math." But just weeks ago, after working extremely hard and truly committing herself, she scored a 95% on a unit test--the highest score in the entire 7th grade.

Or Jair, who immigrated here from Central America a year ago. Last week, his brother was arrested, and though his mother was at court, Jair asked a special request--to stay after school in order to learn math that he truly wanted to understand.

With that said, I will leave with this song from Matisyahu. He says it best:

it's not about
win or lose cause
we all lose
when they feed on the souls of the innocent
blood drenched pavement
keep on moving though the waters stay raging
in this maze you can lose your way
it might drive you crazy but don't let it faze you no way
sometimes in my tears I drown
but I never let it get me down
so when negativity surrounds
I know some day it'll all turn around
because
all my life I've been waiting for
I've been praying for
for the people to say
that we don't wanna fight no more
they'll be no more wars
and our children will play
one day
one day this all will change
treat people the same
stop with the violence
down with the hate
one day we'll all be free
and proud to be
under the same sun
singing songs of freedom like
one day