It has been almost three weeks since our last post and an incredible three weeks it has been. Chicago continues to feel more like home every week, however, every week we also begin to miss friends and family more and are longing for a visit sometime soon.
September 2nd marked my first day of official inservice training at school, and the 8th was finally the first day for our students. It was great to at last be back at school and beginning this next part of our journey. Working at Juarez this year is truly living a dream. The school and the students are fantastic and a great fit. A few stats: 90+% of our students are hispanic, 80% learned English as a second language, 98%ish of our students are low SES, and we were just informed that our school is on probation for the 13th consecutive year. Our school is a family where teachers are passionate about their students and striving to improve. Our students are respectful, courteous and great kids that are fighting an uphill battle to be successful. I know that this year will be full of learning and struggling with some serious issues that I am now living rather than just talking about in abstract terms.
Every year our school loses students to violence related deaths. Just last night on the news in two day 3 Chicago High School students (2 of which were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time) were killed due to gang related violence. In the first four months of 2008 nearly as many people were killed in the city of Chicago due to violence as US soldiers were killed in the war in Afghanistan. My kids are growing up in the midst of a war that they have nothing to do with but will mark the rest of their lives.
Illegal immigration will be another issue that will be close to my hear this year as I live with, teach and get to know students that are in the midst of the reality of being undocumented. I know that some of the issues I'm going to blog about our controversial, I hope and pray that you will give me grace and this space to be real as we learn and wrestle.
As any beginning of the school year is filled with hope, opportunities and excitement it also has been marked with stress, being overwhelmed and illness. I'm excited to get into a routine, gain confidence and get healthy.
We are blessed to continue to plug into the community both here at McCormick and at our church, to deepen relationships and have some connections here in Chicago. We knew that this move to Chicago would be a new chapter in our journey and we continue to live expectantly as this chapter unfolds.
Thank you for reading! You are a blessing in our lives. Feel free to post comments or shoot us an email: jenniferrploeger@gmail.com or ploegerm@gmail.com, we would love to hear from you.
Peace.
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