Rebuilding with the help of community
It’s a teacher’s worst nightmare to greet students with bare walls and minimal supplies on the first day of school. But that was first-year teacher Shameka Provost’s reality after Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters ravaged her home and ruined the classroom materials she had neatly packed and stored there. While Provost is still putting the pieces of her life back together, her classroom is whole again thanks to the HISD Foundation. Provost is among more than 140 teachers awarded nearly $180,000 in grants of up to $1,500 to help them rebuild their classrooms and replace what was lost in the storm. Now, almost six months after Harvey, it’s captivating to watch her coach fourth-graders on the importance of community as they pass around manila paper, glue, and markers to create thinking maps for reading. The experience has not only taught Provost resilience but given her students a lesson on the importance of coming together during the toughest of times to help those in need.