ABSTRACT
Reading these analyses and writing this reflection stirred up long-dormant feelings. Although The Annex was a community of learning and practice, for each group of students the experience only lasted one year. While we stayed in touch, the sophomores eventually had to go back to the main building. New sophomores replaced them, but I missed the opportunity to stay in touch with them directly. They would come over and visit, but I would often be busy with the new students. McElveen et al. (Chapter 13) made me wonder if the sense of communal learning and empowerment we engendered in the students actually held over time outside of the space in which it was born. Did my students leave The Annex to become sleeper cells in the high school, capable of changing some of the one-size-fits-all norms and traditions of the high school proper from inside out? Or, did they succumb to the pressures of this new/old space and lose their communal approach to learning?
