Year's End at Capital High

“But Miss, you taught us that!”
Some days I wonder if I have had any impact as a teacher. There are the moments when I have really lost my cool and shouted, “OK, I have had it! When you are quiet, I will resume.”

The worst part is they go on talking.

I had a master teacher come to my classroom recently and she was talking about living through the Civil Rights struggle. One student, Josh, decided it was ok to have his Ipod playing music while she was talking. Big mistake. “You are disrespecting me! Do not disrespect me!” He sheepishly put away the device.

With my US history class this year, I have been able to inspire some curiosity about Amelia Earhart (with original photographs of her at the helm of her Electra), the Great Depression with a great interactive Internet website with the theme “Who Dunnit?” where the students studied the Government’s economic website indicators (consumer price index, unemployment, bank failure rates etc) to determine the causes of the great Stock Market Crash and the Depression.

We had Sunny Fader who talked about life during World War II and what it was like to be young, Jewish and live in Philadephia. Our class then delved into the 8 stages of genocide and were not surprised at all to learn the last phase is “It did not happen.”

For our seniors, we pursued my global seminar on “What is Poverty?” We read The End of Poverty, by Jeffrey Sachs. The Santa Fe Public School District purchased the books for my senior class in government and economics. We begin with the topic ‘How do you measure poverty?’, look at the UN Millenium Villages in Kenya and then note NM’s unfortunate ranking as #1 (when you factor out DC (not a state) and Mississippi and Alabama (struck by Hurricane Katrina).
Some students were surprised by NM’s ranking. “What about our high minimum wage $9.50?” they asked.



Thanks to a fellowship from Yale University, I will be pursuing a scholar’s program with ten other teachers from around the country in new way to look at maps. We will explore census data, drill down poverty statistics for the southern part of Santa Fe. With compasses and tourist maps in hand, we will debunk the myth of Santa Fe as a monopoly board game—the Plaza and the Hills filled with affluent Hollywood types and New Yorker refugees. The students know from their lives in trailer parks and apartment buildings being raided by the ‘federales” Immigration service that their lives are in a precarious balance.

My Seminar brought in fabulous speakers.
First was Soledad Santiago, a journalist and writer from the Santa Fe, New Mexican. Each of the students wrote a poem.
Then Ray Romereau from the Pueblo of Pojoaque discussed life growing up as a Native American.
John Draper, Esq spoke of water rights between states and their compacts. John explained the process of presenting water rights disputes before the highest court in the land: the Supreme Court.
Dennis Kogo from Kenya who talked about poverty in Kenya (less than a dollar a day income) and his microenterprise making backboards for basketball hoops.

Spring would not be Spring without girl’s softball. When I think back on my days as a catcher and my dear mother traveling to games to watch us play, I had to laugh. The Lady Jags as they are called were almost champions. The girls and the game looked a lot tougher and more professional. Underhanded serves and out of the park home runs—not to mention uniforms.

This summer I will also be participating in a high achievement program for students who are college bound. Called AVID, students and their parents sign a contract to excel. These students are highly motivated and receive a lot of support from all teachers.