“ Noise. Throbbing noise. It wasn’t just the volume though. It was as if I’d been locked in a broom closet with gigantic concert speakers blaring away with far too much bass. It pulsed and my whole body absorbed the sound in relentless waves. When I walked into the Thomas Jefferson Middle School gymnasium for my first day as a teacher there, I was met by nearly 1,000 pubescent voices competing against one another to see which could be loudest. It felt like a tsunami was about to make landfall right on top of me. Two young boys ran toward me at a... Read More