20th Anniversary Summit

This past weekend was Teach For America's 20th Anniversary Summit, so I (along with 11,000 of my fellow corps members, alumni, staff and supporters) headed to DC! I was very curious what type of building could even fit 11,000 people in it, and it turns out the Walter E. Washington Convention Center can. It is also the type of building that is for fancy business people, who are so fancy they have to wear ties and bring briefcases into the bathroom:

I am not sure what the second picture means.

In case you were curious, this is what 11,000 people eating breakfast looks like:

And this is what (part of) 11,000 people listening to a speaker looks like:

It was extremely awesome to see people I taught with in NYC, including my very favorite teacher ever, Ms. L! She caught me up on all my students from last year (they are now her eighth graders!), as well as all the gossip from our school, which actually may be shut down at the end of this year if its ELA scores don't stop their nosedive (although apparently our science scores are good, which I think we can take some credit for).

There were a lot of cool things over the course of the weekend, like a YouTube upload booth (in the Google-sponsored lounge, which had a bunch of power outlets and free WiFi):

Because sometimes uploading your thoughts to YouTube is an emergency.

A mobile made out of bicycles:

Its neighbors are made out of kayaks and tennis rackets.

A piano island in our hotel lobby:

I never saw anyone play the piano, so I don't know how they get on the island.

And even customized, TFA 20th anniversary drink tickets for the evening receptions:

But really, the best part of all was being in a place that was practically vibrating with the energy of 11,000 people all working on the same enormous problem. I sometimes lose sight of the magnitude and moral reprehensibility of the achievement gap now that I am not confronted with it in the classroom every day, but this weekend really re-inspired me about my work and the movement I am a part of.

The above and beyond best part was an amazing short speech given by Kaya Henderson (TFA alumna and interim chancellor of DC public schools), but so far I've been unable to find a copy of it online. I know there were cameras there so I'm optimistic that one will surface, and as soon as it does I am going to transcribe it and post it in my cube so I can read it every day.

In the meantime, if you have some free time and are curious about what I do and why, the opening and closing sessions are already up (the closing one is probably better if you only have time for one, it includes President Obama addressing us and John Legend - one of our national board members - performing). And until I can find Kaya Henderson's amazing speech, I highly recommend what was probably the second most inspiring moment of the summit, Michael Johnston (alum and now CO senator) speaking about his pioneering ed reform law:



I have watched it five times already, and I still tear up at the end every time: "We do, Tiffany. We do."