8th Grade Graduation for Jeremy's Students

My school holds graduation for the 8th graders at our school since it is the oldest grade at our school. As much as I do not believe in having a graduation ceremony for 8th graders because it gives a false sense of "being done" with school, it was nice to have a closing ceremony with them since I will not be returning.


All the middle school teachers had to share a few words for our departing 8th graders. I chose to talk about details and how it is in the details that I came to love history, and it is in the details that I came to love these 8th graders.

I also shared one of my favorite quotes from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as a parting counsel for them:

"The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight,
but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night."

Final Law School Decision

The decision is made, we are going to the University of Arizona for law school! We are so excited to start this chapter of our life. We have so much to look forward to, but we are leaving a great deal behind (great friends, DC, and all the goodness that goes with it). We have been able to accomplish a great deal while we have been out here and we will continue to look back on these good times. I am coming away with a firsthand experience of urban education in this nation. There is a great deal that needs to occur to close the achievement gap in this nation, but I have learned how much a committed teacher can add to a student's success.