RIP Charlotte Chandler, my Teach for America co-teacher

Right out of college in June 2003, I was a Teach for America corps member in Houston, TX. I taught second and third grade at J.W. Oates Elementary School (pictured above), which is on the northeast side of Houston. Most of the kids I taught had fathers who were long-haul truckers, 2-3 kids in my class barely spoke English (rather Spanish, which I don't …