It's been a long day sitting in on the life of a teacher. Like I mentioned, I'm in Chicago visiting my sister Jackie, a first-year teacher through Teach for America at the all-male Urban Prep charter school. These especially high risk kids are accepted on a lottery basis and receive extra structure and support to get them on track toward college instead of incarceration. We sat outside and enjoyed the perfect fall day and graded the ominous stack of papers and tests. What a long, tedious process! Both of my parents have been teachers for their whole career and still work in education, so I am familiar with the incredible amount of work that goes into teaching... but still! Jackie's staggering work load, in combination with the family, social and economic challenges her students face, still blows my mind. In a city with more than 500 homicides so far this year and where your 3rd grade reading level determines if you have a jail bed waiting for you, young lives sit in precarious balance.
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Saturday we went to her kids' cross country meet, where I met a few of her fellow teachers and a handful of her hilarious students. Her students simply adore her, and watching her interact with them... such a treat! "Ms. Hamm! Ms. Hamm!!! I got a A in your class huh! Did you see me run? I'm running JV this week so I'll win!" Most of them were stoked to meet me, and were shocked how similar we look: (gasp) "You really DO look all the same!" (Hmmmmm... ;) My sister Katie visited a couple weeks ago and the boys haven't stopped asking about her. It is sweet to see how much Jackie lets them into her life, and see how connected they are already.
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To kind of decompress from the teacher day (again, don't know how she does it) I was looking around online for some Chicago fashion blogs. I came across the stylist Justin White, who writes for the Urban Outfitters blog on cool fashy happenings around the windy city.
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