Elizabeth Jackson: 15 minutes of fame
I graduated in 2000, and now live in Chicago. I work as a 7th/8th grade language arts teacher at Nichols Middle School in Evanston, Illinois.
On a Friday afternoon in late September--a day when I wanted to leave the building and never come back, a day when I was wondering if teaching was really worth the trouble--I received a call from Newsweek asking if I wanted to be one of three first year teachers from around the country to keep a journal of my experiences for publication in the magazine. Of course I said yes, and within ten minutes was talking to my "editor in New York." Although a publication date has not been pinned down, my editor said they are shooting for sometime in June after school is out. So, I, along with an elementary school teacher in San Francisco, and a high school teacher in Boston, have been keeping a journal since I received the call.
How did I come by such an opportunity? Newsweek called my district (Evanston/Skokie School District 65) because it is one of the most diverse districts in the country and talked to one of our new Assistant Superintendents, who was the principal at Nichols when I student taught there last fall. She immediately told then to call me at Nichols, and thus my 15 minutes of fame at 23.
(The article, "A Year in the Life," has now been published and can be read at: www.newsweek.msnbc.com)
--Elizabeth Jackson, '00
