tfa origins

I've been in Clarkston since Friday, and it's been really nice to have a break and to spend some quality time with my parents. I hadn't been home more than a few hours, when my dad returned from a quick library visit with One Day, All Children...: The Unlikely Triumph of Teach For America and What I learned Along the Way by Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach For America. I hadn't even known she'd written a book... 

Reading her book made me even more excited about working to end educational inequity. She discussed having the idea in 1989 for TFA while a 22 year-old Princeton senior and the difficulty of beginning the funding and support for such an organization. She discussed the years it almost ended and how within a decade it had grown to become such a financially stable and successful organization. She discussed having celebrities participate in a Teach For America Day. She had individuals like Henry Kissinger, Oprah and the managing editor of Time participate. She discussed her meeting with President Clinton the night the US began bombing Kosovo. Her experience and passion are contagious.

Ultimately, I appreciated her words on what constitutes good teaching:

It's not magic. These teachers set clear goals for their students, motivate people (in this case students and their families) to work hard toward the goals, do whatever it takes to accomplish them, and build a positive culture within their classrooms to support their efforts.

She's written another book, A Chance to Make History: What Works and What Doesn't in Providing an Excellent Education for All. I'll have to read it next quarter in my attempt to provide a quality education to my students at WWVA.