After our Summer Course, I went to the African festival in Boston and met Nana, from Cooking Jollof with Nana in Ghana (Part of the Ashanti Princess and Prince book series) written by Crystal Boateng. Crystal and her daughter read that book during our TA Summer series. I asked how she knew the author and she said it was her daughter. Nana was surprised that I knew of her character. We hugged, took a picture with my daughter and she sent it to Crystal.

The school year is always interesting. Heavy on my heart are the following. 😣 I am at a new school in a new building, teaching a different grade than last year. I am having a lot of mixed feelings regarding inclusion. At this point, I have come to my own conclusion of what it should not look like. The school itself is very large and the physical size is tiring and overwhelming. We are three schools that closed and merged into one large one not made for elementary school children. It hurts my brain that every year there are several teachers in schools (everywhere) that are missing required curriculum and materials that are (supposed to be) provided by the district. It is October and our Math student workbooks have finally arrived. I can now spend less time at the photo copier. Yay to the environment. Word on the street is that we are the first Cape Verdean dual language school. We had a visit from the Cape Verdean prime Minister and his motorcade was fantastic to watch out the window. I am questioning how the teaching and sharing of knowledge regarding Cape Verde will be accessible to those of us not in that wing. Also what are we as educators in a dual language school being offerred about CV other than our core values being written in both English and Cape Verdean Creole? I hope to be able to present my curriculum to my school community. I think this is a good start and will help myself and other teachers not as familiar gain an entry point in our community and make some actual connections.