Jen Richard is a first-year teacher at Concord High School. She taught five classes and had roughly 120 students in either Civics or Geography and Cultures courses. Although her first semester was trying, she gained confidence as the year went on.
It didn't take the students long to see the blue notes stuck on the desktops in their fifth-floor classroom. "Oh, hell no," said a girl with her blond hair pulled high in a ponytail. "Do we have assigned seats? I might leave this class," said another girl. The ponytailed girl turned to her neighbor,… 8
It was early on a gray morning in late January, and the new civics students were getting into their discussion about what makes a good citizen. A boy suggested Martin Luther King Jr. was being a good person when he broke the law by eating in segregated restaurants - but maybe not a good citizen. A girl in the back… 4