Katrina's Sandcastles ― New Hope from the Ruins of New Orleans Schools

Katrina’s Sandcastles is Kaycee Eckhardt’s harrowing and hopeful journey of becoming an effective teacher and building a new school in post-Katrina New Orleans. Beginning as a first year teacher, Eckhardt recounts her path through four different schools in the New Orleans neighborhoods of Holly Grove, Algiers, Treme, and the 9th Ward, planting the seeds of literacy in the most dire of circumstances. With affection and brutal honesty, she relates the circumstances of several children, the belief in all things possible, and finally, her most difficult decision of all. Filled with heartbreaking stories, teacher survival strategies, and an excess of heart, Katrina’s Sandcastles is a story of sacrifice and struggle, belief and failure, despair and ultimate redemption in the heart of the Crescent City.

Kaycee Eckhardt taught in Japan for several years before being inspired by Hurricane Katrina to return to her Louisiana home. She was a founding staff member of Sci Academy, now Collegiate Academies and she was named Louisiana Charter School Teacher of the Year in 2009. She lives in New Orleans.