Coolidge was challenging, rewarding, and inspiring.I was on a team with Sherra Davis and she taught english and language arts where I taught math, science, and social studies. I always enjoyed teaching math and showing children who thought they weren't good at math and showing them that they were. Anyone can be good at math and watching the lights turn on for the children was really my biggest joy. I really liked Mr. Bracy. He was a great principal. He really made me appreciate that you shouldn’t approach students with zero tolerance, he focused on the whole child. He was my favorite principal because of that. He always put the children first and they really responded to him.One of the things we did was go to Cedar Point every year and it was a lasting impact because there were a lot of children who had never been outside of Flint. They got to see Lake Eerie and spend their own money and you really saw them grow. [When the school shut down] I was really kind of sad because we had a lot of children had gone from school to school. I remember a girl wrote something about every school she attended had closed. Kids didn’t have that stability of thinking that they would start and finish in the same school. That was a sad thing for a school to just close like that when it meant so much to the community. I think it's [Coolidge Park Apartments] awesome. I live less than a mile from there and I drive by all the time and the progress is just astounding. Sometimes I drive by just to see the progress. I think it’ll be fabulous. I'm really glad it won't be a dinosaur or just abandoned. I'm really happy about that. |