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    The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World
    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World
    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World
    Audiobook7 hours

    The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World

    Written by Nadia Lopez and Rebecca Paley

    Narrated by Nadia Lopez and Adenrele Ojo

    5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The inspirational account of the creation of a pathbreaking inner-city middle school in Brooklyn, New York, by the magnetic young principal who rocketed to national fame via Humans of New York

    When thirteen-year-old Vidal Chastanet told photographer Brandon Stanton that his principal ,"Ms. Lopez," was the person who most influenced his life, it was the pebble that started a whirlwind for Nadia Lopez and her small, new public school in one of Brooklyn's most wretched communities. The posting on Stanton's wildly popular site Humans of New York (HONY) went mega-viral. Lopez--not long before on the verge of quitting--found herself in the national spotlight and headed for a meeting with Obama, as well as the beneficiary of a million-dollar IndieGoGo campaign for the school. Here is her first-person account of what it took to get to that moment.

    Mott Hall Bridges Academy isn't just a hallway inside a typically under-served public school in one of New York City's most underprivileged communities--it is a school that glows with energy and excitement. Lopez tells the kids every day that they're extraordinary and that she loves them. When trouble stirs, she asks: "Would I have been proud to see what happened in that classroom? No? Then why did it happen?" She tells her teachers: "Don't tell me our scholars can't learn; because if you can't teach them, then I'll come teach your class for a couple of weeks."

    Everything was an uphill battle--to get the school launched, to recruit faculty and students, to solve a million new problems every day, from violent crime to vanishing supplies, but Lopez illustrates how leadership often means just picking the right people to support you. In middle school, one year lost with an un-engaged teacher is a year that can send a kid down a terrible path. And then, of course, there is the educational system itself, how "teaching to the test" is an enormous problem, particularly in schools with kids who are already disadvantaged and under-prepared.

    The Bridge to Brilliance is an audiobook filled with common sense and caring that will carry her message to classrooms far from Brooklyn. As she says, modestly, "There are hundreds of Ms. Lopezes around this country doing good work for kids. This honors all of them."

    With an Introduction read by the Author

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateAug 30, 2016
    ISBN9780451485335
    Unavailable
    The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World

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    Reviews for The Bridge to Brilliance

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    • 5/5
      This is the story of how one woman worked to create a middle school that truly served its scholars in one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City. It is an amazing story that speaks to those of us who have entered the field of education for the best reasons – to benefit kids. I found it inspiring.
    • 5/5
      One principal, one teacher, one parent, one student, it has to start somewhere. The somewhere in this book is Mott Hall Bridges Academy. It is a unique public school for sixth graders located in a high crime area in Brownsville, New York. The principal is author Nadia Lopez. This book is really about the power of choice, tough love, and result. Lopez describes the successes and failure principals and teachers face when developing a new school filled with at-risk students. Poverty, abuse, and other issues associated with being a minority in a low income high crime is not an excuse for failure. Instead, Lopez proposes that is makes it extremely important to recognize students as individuals, take an interest in their success, and provide a safe place to learn. The lessons may divert from the academic to the social skills through discussion like ‘friends versus peers’ or a tea party that teaches student how to correctly use eating utensils. She lightly touches on the challenges of Department of Education rules, Common Core Standards, and No Student Left Behind impediments by not concentrating on what to call it but getting down to doing the academic work that help student succeed. The common sense approach will appeal to educators and parents.