Goodbye NOW, Hello Godchaux!

We spent a LONG couple days packing up the school hardcore. When we entered the school in October, the classrooms and closets were filled with random shit from the 1970’s, and we did the right thing by even cleaning that stuff out. We moved out the entire school by Friday at noon, an impressive feat. I was lucky enough to miss packing up on Thursday. Nicole and I had to fly to New Orleans for the day to interview for a teaching job for next year. You can call it my first “business trip” ever. We both got hired, and our teaching assignment will be really great. It involves working out in rural New Orleans (St. John the Baptist Parish, known for its wicked Andouille, Crawfish and Strawberry festivals!) at a special accelerated program.

Nicole and I are placed at Godchaux Middle School in Reserve, Lousiana, about 45 minutes from my house in New Orleans (more on my new house later!) Godchaux is a school of 10 teachers and 15 students (great ratio!) and it is actually a “program” not a school- it draws students from other schools who have failed the LEAP at least twice (the state test). So they are old for their grade, and pretty unmotivated. We will both start out teaching 5th grade and then as our kids progress, if they can pass an equivalency test, they can move up a grade mid-year, so we would change subjects we teach also.



Here’s the interesting part- we will be nothing less than agents of desegregation. That’s right, to my knowledge Godchaux has never had a white teacher. By order of the Department of Justice, all Louisiana schools’ faculty must be desegregated by the end of 2006. So the superintendent did not beat around the bush, telling us up front that we are great candidates for hire because we are white (all the rest of the Godchaux faculty is black.) That was a bit off-putting to frame it that way, and slightly awkward when we went to the school, where the teachers already knew we were the “new white teachers.” But, alas, it will be a very unique experience.

Most of the faculty has worked there for 20+ years and they are close-knit. I think it will be great to work with veteran teachers who know the kids well, not to mention having a separation between social life/work life that did not exist this year at NOW College Prep. Being the new kids on the block will be really challenging, as well as switching grade curriculum throughout the year, but the possibilities at this place are inspiring. I mean, we had a school full of largely unmotivated kids in October and this year was very successful. I’m not intimidated by older students, and I am excited about the opportunity to catch them up to grade level.

My contract starts July 31, and I it’s a huge burden lifted to know I have a job next year. It was a successful trip, and Jake showed me the house we’re going to live in for the next year, so things are finally coming together after a VERY emotional and stressful last few weeks. It was great to be back in New Orleans, with a snow ball (snow cone) in my hand. I’m totally ready to move back at the end of June, after our West Coast Extravaganza. Summer is going to be awesome- after moving back, I will spend most of July in Ecuador, visiting my beloved host families from two years ago and eating all the South American food my little heart desires. More soon...in the meantime, enjoy 3 of my favorite pictures from the year.
Cheers, Sarah B.