Language arts teacher Jessamyn Young helps at-risk students find their voice-literally. Each week, she hosts an open-mike poetry night, during which teenage poets from across the district unleash their verbal creativity on subjects close to their hearts before a live audience. Her program has led to a dramatic increase in the quantity and quality of student writing. This ability to inspire her students lies at the core of Ms. Young's instructional approach, as she helps them believe in their capacity to overcome barriers to learning and reveal their talents. Working with students who have little interest in school, she transforms them into excited, motivated learners willing and eager to participate. Understanding the educational power of real-life experiences, Ms. Juarez often engages students in projects and activities that take them out of the classroom and into the real world. When students became interested in several brutal crimes that had been taking place for years in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juarez, Ms. Young called upon local legislators to help the students prepare testimony about it for the state legislature. Their testimony resulted in the state senate unanimously passing a memorial resolution. Thanks to Ms. Young's instruction, her students regularly show improvement on standardized tests, and many who had no intention of going to college change their minds after Ms. Young shows them that it's possible. As an educator, Jessamyn Young is pure poetry in motion.
