Weekly Re-cap

Somehow, the days just keep getting better and better. My mom is pretty famous for saying "that is the best [chose your food] I have ever had, ever, honestly!" My father and I just laugh and try not to roll our eyes; because, really, how many bests of the same sort of food can can you have? You should only be able to say that line once per category, I would argue. But lately, I confess, I am beginning to feel the same way about my experience here with the Mississippi Teacher Corps. At the end of each day, I find myself thinking, "wow, those were the most inspiring people I have ever met, ever, honestly!" Or, "now that was the best day yet."

Week three has been a thrill. I am beginning to nail down a routine; I wake up at 5 AM with Larissa before she heads off to Holy Springs summer school to work in the office. I try and take my run through Lamar Park before the heat index reaches 105 degrees later in the day. I read the handy online NY Times Digest while I eat breakfast and then savor my fifteen minute walk to work through the beautiful University campus beneath towing magnolia trees.

Larissa and I alternate working here at the University for Ben one week to helping out at summer school. So, in answer to many of the questions I have received - no we do not actually teach. At the MTC office I am working on converting all of the MTC paper files to digital files, a rather daunting task at first, but by this point I see progress and that is encouraging. I do whatever Ben requests; fax, file, phone calls, spreadsheets, errands, you name it. Ben has high expectations, but keeps it fun, that's just the kind of person he is and just the way I like it.

As apart of the MTC Internship, Larissa and I get to meet, listen to and talk with a wide variety of people who are in some way deeply involved with public education in the state. This Tuesday, the other interns and I were fortunate enough to meet Claiborne & Marian Barksdale at the Barksdale Reading Institute (BRI) right here in Oxford. At the University of Mississippi, Oxford, the Barksdale name has come to be associated with a true dedication to improving life for all Mississippians through vision, innovation, execution and philanthropy.

I find it awfully surprising that the state of Mississippi, while home to generations of literary giants such as William Faulkner, John Grisham, and Richard Wright, ranks dead last out of all state literacy rates. It is also last in the dollar amounts spent on each student in its public school system, competing with Alabama, Tennessee, Arizona, and Utah. High poverty levels combined with a lack of funding for remediation, materials, and teacher training exacerbate the critical problem. This is where MTC and BRI are working to eliminate the gap.

In the year 2000, Mr. and Mrs. Barksdale, both natives of Mississippi, decided that the reading levels in the Magnolia State were unacceptably low and they became determined to reverse the trend. The family donated $100 million dollars and founded the BRI. Claiborne gave us a detailed account of the ways in which the Institute has significantly improved the reading abilities of children in kindergarten through the third grade in more than 70 under-performing Mississippi public school, in addition to the pre-literacy levels of children from birth.

Here's how it works: the BRI formed partnerships with the state's public school system, the Mississippi Department of Education, as well as the state's public Universities to create 'systemic' reform in the way reading is taught to children across the state. To save myself from paraphrasing, I encourage everyone to visit www.msreads.org/ to learn more about this critical effort.

This has really been a small recap of what I learned in one morning this week, but there were so many other things going on as well. On Tuesday afternoon, Larissa and I interviewed Dr. Whitney Webb to begin our oral history project about MTC. Thursday, I continued the project with an interview with Dr. Mullins - the Co-Founder and Co-Director of the MTC program. The workload in the office has been significant and constant, but I so enjoy it!

(Attentive notetakers while listening to Marian Barksdale talk about her work on the PTA and as a tutor)

And, here with Hallie sitting on the great porch of the BRI before lunch

Yesterday afternoon, my mom popped into town for a quick visit. It is so lovely to have to opportunity to show her a glimpse of what I have been excitedly writing home about for several weeks now. After a trip to the Taylor Farmer's Market on Saturday morning (I am dying to buy a handmade wooden salad bowl), we will travel north to visit a dear old family friend in Germantown, Tennessee. We plan to go to the Civil Rights Museum and I hope, visit the cul-de-sac where I first learned to ride a two-wheeler at age three. Next week I will be in Holy Springs so expect some updates from there!