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News & Photos
Faculty Visit McDonogh 26
Right before the string of three mid-February snow days, Lower School teachers Barbara Zimmerman and Mary Catherine Irving journeyed to New Orleans to connect with counterparts at sister-school McDonogh 26. City, school, and people made quite an impression.
Zimmerman and Irving arrived in time for Mardi Gras revelry and left the day tornadoes added insult to the injured area. In between, they never sat down.
The constant wherever they went: helpful, happy, friendly people full of pride in their city. Especially generous and hospitable were the McDonogh 26 teachers, including aide Sally Falcone and Irving’s counterpart, Johnita Smith, who hosted Zimmerman and Irving for a Sunday meal and secured them precious grandstand seats to a parade.
Their days were studies in contrasts: tours of a still-battered city and celebrations at Mardi Gras parades. Comparatively few material needs at McDonogh 26, but profound human ones.
“The kids had a hollow look to them,” Irving observed. The children don’t share their Katrina survival stories with their classmates and teachers, but they did with visitors Irving and Zimmerman. One said she had to swim out of her house during the storm.
“Things that we would normally talk about with children, we held back. We let the children start the conversation,” Zimmerman said. “That’s what they needed--just someone to listen.”
Irving and Johnita Smith finally got to talk face-to-face after exchanging regular e-mails since last year. Their first grade students are pen pals. “I was really excited to meet Johnita, see the class, and put faces to names,” Irving said. The two classes will share a common science unit, butterflies, in April. Students have been trading letters and gifts since September.
Zimmerman hoped her visit would lead to a similar exchange, including curriculum sharing, with teachers in the upper grades. She extended an open invitation before leaving for home.
Both observed their host teachers’ intense efforts to maintain pre-Katrina learning standards. Among the challenges: teachers still don’t know who will be in their classes each day. McDonogh 26 in Gretna used to be a community elementary school but now draws students from far and wide.
For Irving, who spent a week in the lower ninth ward on a Jesuit Volunteer Corps mission last summer, the February visit confirmed that volunteer help is still critical.
Zimmerman, meanwhile, returned with the impression that New Orleans, despite its current appearance, is the greatest city in the world. "I might never have gone but for this experience with McDonogh 26. I'm very thankful for that."
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Right before the string of three mid-February snow days, Lower School teachers Barbara Zimmerman and Mary Catherine Irving journeyed to New Orleans to connect with counterparts at sister-school McDonogh 26. City, school, and people made quite an impression.
Zimmerman and Irving arrived in time for Mardi Gras revelry and left the day tornadoes added insult to the injured area. In between, they never sat down.
The constant wherever they went: helpful, happy, friendly people full of pride in their city. Especially generous and hospitable were the McDonogh 26 teachers, including aide Sally Falcone and Irving’s counterpart, Johnita Smith, who hosted Zimmerman and Irving for a Sunday meal and secured them precious grandstand seats to a parade.
Their days were studies in contrasts: tours of a still-battered city and celebrations at Mardi Gras parades. Comparatively few material needs at McDonogh 26, but profound human ones.
“The kids had a hollow look to them,” Irving observed. The children don’t share their Katrina survival stories with their classmates and teachers, but they did with visitors Irving and Zimmerman. One said she had to swim out of her house during the storm.
“Things that we would normally talk about with children, we held back. We let the children start the conversation,” Zimmerman said. “That’s what they needed--just someone to listen.”
Irving and Johnita Smith finally got to talk face-to-face after exchanging regular e-mails since last year. Their first grade students are pen pals. “I was really excited to meet Johnita, see the class, and put faces to names,” Irving said. The two classes will share a common science unit, butterflies, in April. Students have been trading letters and gifts since September.
Zimmerman hoped her visit would lead to a similar exchange, including curriculum sharing, with teachers in the upper grades. She extended an open invitation before leaving for home.
Both observed their host teachers’ intense efforts to maintain pre-Katrina learning standards. Among the challenges: teachers still don’t know who will be in their classes each day. McDonogh 26 in Gretna used to be a community elementary school but now draws students from far and wide.
For Irving, who spent a week in the lower ninth ward on a Jesuit Volunteer Corps mission last summer, the February visit confirmed that volunteer help is still critical.
Zimmerman, meanwhile, returned with the impression that New Orleans, despite its current appearance, is the greatest city in the world. "I might never have gone but for this experience with McDonogh 26. I'm very thankful for that."