The Bridge to Brilliance
How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World
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Narrated by:
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Adenrele Ojo
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Nadia Lopez
About this listen
The inspirational account of the creation of a path-breaking inner-city middle school in Brooklyn, New York, by the magnetic young principal who rocketed to national fame via Humans of New York.
When 13-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 megaviral. 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 underserved 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 unengaged 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 underprepared.
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.
©2016 Nadia Lopez & Rebecca Paley (P)2016 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“The story of Mott Hall Bridges Academy is the story of American education. Nadia Lopez stands on the front line of the fight to educate America’s children." (Brandon Stanton, author of Humans of New York)
"Essential...the key to academic excellence begins with an open mind." (Essence)
"A valuable depiction of what it takes for principals and teachers to reach children in the most troubled communities...will give readers even more reasons to ask what we as a society are doing to support the thousands of educators who labor in obscurity, trying to help the nation's most vulnerable children." (Dale Russakoff, The New York Times Book Review)
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The Formula
- Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children
- By: Ronald F. Ferguson, Tatsha Robertson
- Narrated by: Cynthia Farrell
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Formula: Unlocking the Secrets to Raising Highly Successful Children, Harvard economist Ronald Ferguson, named in a New York Times profile as the foremost expert on the US educational "achievement gap," along with award-winning journalist Tatsha Robertson, reveal an intriguing blueprint for helping children from all types of backgrounds become successful adults.
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would recommend
- By Marcia on 02-25-20
By: Ronald F. Ferguson, and others
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I Wish My Teacher Knew
- How One Question Can Change Everything for Our Kids
- By: Kyle Schwartz
- Narrated by: Allyson Ryan
- Length: 6 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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One day, third-grade teacher Kyle Schwartz asked her students to fill in the blank in this sentence: "I wish my teacher knew _____." The results astounded her. Some answers were humorous; others were heartbreaking; all were profoundly moving and enlightening. The results opened her eyes to the need for educators to understand the unique realities their students face in order to create an open, safe, and supportive place in the classroom. When Schwartz shared her experience online, #IWishMyTeacherKnew became an immediate worldwide viral phenomenon.
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Not worth the time
- By James M George on 06-29-20
By: Kyle Schwartz
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Letters to a Young Teacher
- By: Jonathan Kozol
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 5 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In these affectionate letters to Francesca, a first-grade teacher at an inner-city school in Boston, Jonathan Kozol vividly describes his repeated visits to her classroom while, under Francesca's likably irreverent questioning, also revealing his own most personal stories of the years that he has spent in public schools.
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A must read for new teachers
- By Santiago on 03-31-10
By: Jonathan Kozol
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Troublemakers
- Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School
- By: Carla Shalaby
- Narrated by: Luci Christian Bell
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In this dazzling debut, Carla Shalaby, a former elementary school teacher, explores the everyday lives of four young "troublemakers", challenging the ways we identify and understand so-called problem children. Time and again, we make seemingly endless efforts to moderate, punish, and even medicate our children, when we should instead be concerned with transforming the very nature of our institutions, systems, and structures, large and small.
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Interesting and disturbing
- By Anonymous User on 07-27-18
By: Carla Shalaby
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What Teachers Make
- In Praise of the Greatest Job in the World
- By: Taylor Mali
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 2 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Former middle school teacher and teachers' advocate Taylor Mali struck a chord with his passionate response to a man at a dinner party who asked him what kind of salary teachers make - a poetic rant that has been seen and forwarded millions of times on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. Based on the poem that inspired a movement, What Teachers Make is Mali's sharp, funny, reflective, critical call to arms about the joys of teaching and why teachers are so vital to America today.
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Loved it!!
- By Anonymous User on 02-16-22
By: Taylor Mali
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Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire
- By: Rafe Esquith
- Narrated by: James Yaegashi
- Length: 7 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Best-selling author Rafe Esquith, the only teacher to receive the National Medal of Arts, has garnered the American Teacher Award and numerous other honors. Still teaching fifth graders in a small, leaky classroom in downtown Los Angeles, Esquith fosters a wholesome climate where character, humility, and diligence matter and support is unconditional. For his mostly poor and Hispanic students, Esquith models two maxims: Be nice and work hard, and There are no shortcuts. And his students thrive!
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Inspiring even if not what it claims to be
- By Thomas Keeler on 11-14-10
By: Rafe Esquith
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The Power of a Plant
- A Teacher's Odyssey to Grow Healthy Minds and Schools
- By: Stephen Ritz, Suzie Boss
- Narrated by: Stephen Ritz
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Power of a Plant, globally acclaimed teacher and self-proclaimed CEO (Chief Eternal Optimist) Stephen Ritz shows you how, in one of the nation's poorest communities, his students thrive in school and in life by growing, cooking, eating, and sharing the bounty of their green classroom.
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Thanks For The Power Of A Plant
- By Pedalingfree on 05-08-21
By: Stephen Ritz, and others
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The Grown-Up's Guide to Teenage Humans
- How to Decode Their Behavior, Develop Unshakable Trust, and Raise a Respectable Adult
- By: Josh Shipp
- Narrated by: Roger Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Written in Shipp's playfully authoritative, no-nonsense voice, The Grown-Up's Guide to Teenage Humans tells his story and unpacks practical strategies that can make a difference. Ultimately, it's not about shortcuts or magic words - as Shipp reminds us, it's about investing in kids and giving them the love, time, and support they need to thrive. And that means every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story.
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Read it....then read it again!
- By R. Eichelberger on 11-07-17
By: Josh Shipp
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The Prize
- Who's in Charge of America's Schools?
- By: Dale Russakoff
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 8 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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When Mark Zuckerberg announced in front of a cheering Oprah audience his $100 million pledge to transform the Newark Schools - and to solve the education crisis in every city in America - it looked like a huge win for then-mayor Cory Booker and governor Chris Christie. But their plans soon ran into a constituency not so easily moved - Newark's key education players, fiercely protective of their billion-dollar-per-annum system.
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Well-researched - Provides Good Answers
- By Denyse on 01-11-16
By: Dale Russakoff
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Not My Boy!
- A Father, a Son, and One Family's Journey with Autism
- By: Rodney Peete, Danelle Morton
- Narrated by: Richard Allen
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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"Like most fathers, I'd dreamt of doing all sorts of things with my son. I had so many plans, but when I was told my son was autistic, those plans seemed more like a fantasy. Well, eight years after that dreadful diagnosis, I am writing this book to let every father know that your plans for you and your son can still be a reality. It's just the path that takes you there that has to be altered."
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Loved This Book. Thank-you to the Peetes for sharing your Autism journey as parents.
- By Amazon Customer on 03-25-18
By: Rodney Peete, and others
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Wait, What?
- And Life's Other Essential Questions
- By: James E. Ryan
- Narrated by: James E. Ryan
- Length: 2 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In his commencement address to the graduating class of 2016, James E. Ryan, dean of the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, offered remarkable advice to the crowd of hopeful men and women eager to make their marks on the world. The key to achieving emotional connections and social progress, he told them, can be found in five essential questions.
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Great For Our Jobs, Our Families, Our Lives!
- By Gillian on 05-18-18
By: James E. Ryan
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How to Be Black
- By: Baratunde Thurston
- Narrated by: Baratunde Thurston
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Beyond memoir, this guidebook offers practical advice on everything from "How to Be the Black Friend" to "How to Be the (Next) Black President" to "How to Celebrate Black History Month". This is a humorous, intelligent, and audacious guide that challenges and satirizes the so-called experts, purists, and racists who purport to speak for all Black people. With honest storytelling and biting wit, Baratunde plots a path not just to blackness, but one open to anyone interested in simply "how to be".
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Funny yet insightful!
- By Theodore on 02-15-12
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Common Ground: Exclusive Edition
- By: Justin Trudeau
- Narrated by: Justin Trudeau, Colm Feore
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Justin Trudeau has spent his life in the public eye. From the moment he was born, the first son of an iconic prime minister and his young wife, Canadians have witnessed the highs and the lows, sharing in his successes and mourning with him during tragic times. But few beyond Justin's closest circle have heard his side of his unique journey. Now, in Common Ground, Justin Trudeau reveals how the events of his life have influenced him and formed the ideals that drive him today.
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Mesmerizing
- By emilia on 05-04-18
By: Justin Trudeau
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Mindset
- The New Psychology of Success
- By: Carol S. Dweck PhD
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she describes how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. In this edition, Dweck offers new insights into her now famous and broadly embraced concept. She introduces a phenomenon she calls false growth mindset and guides people toward adopting a deeper, truer growth mindset.
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😫THIS NARRATOR IS UNBEARABLE 😫
- By The non-critic on 03-29-19
What listeners say about The Bridge to Brilliance
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rachel M
- 02-06-18
Good Read
I agree with some of what she states and disagree with some as well. However, overall it is an inspiring book, well worth the read!
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- Amazon Customer
- 05-31-21
Truly Inspiring
Ms. Lopez did an amazing job at capturing the spirit of Brownsville in this book. She invited you into the lives of her scholars and displayed their remarkable resilience. Great read.
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- Melissa S.
- 01-20-20
A must read for any educator!
This book had me hooked from the start. As an educator in a very similar area, this book gave me much more than a story to read. As I flipped through the pages I felt like the struggles that Nadia wrote about were parallel to things happening at my school. This book gave me inspiration as well as practical ideas to solve issues I was dealing with. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking to be inspired by the impossible becoming possible. The audiobook performance was amazing. The narrator was passionate and her performance really elevated the book to a whole new level for me.
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- frances
- 12-23-22
Empathy not Sympathy! A clear message to public servants.
Dr. López created a visual with her words of the struggles we encounter as educators for our inner city youth. We don’t need sympathy for our children, we need empathy. A way to bridge that brilliance to their successes. 🥹🫶🏾
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- Monica
- 07-14-18
Transparent, insightful, and motivating
A beautiful story about the power of keeping students first. Definitely a must read for ed leaders striving to overcome daily challenges in order to produce positive outcomes for students.
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- vicki
- 11-06-17
Don't give on them!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The perseverance of this principal is needed is needed in certain areas of our country. Her desire for the students became their desire for themselves. Sometimes you don't know what you want until others show you the possibilities.
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- Amazon Customer
- 10-26-16
Phenomenal!
I absolute loved this book! The messages it gives are so meaningful for anyone in any human service, education, or really any other job position. Empathy, understanding, and listening are things that everyone should take more time to do.
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- Grandchampion
- 01-05-19
Ms. Lopez you are truly an inspiration.
Ms. Lopez you are truly an inspiration. I agree every child should have a chance to walk across a Bridge to Brilliance. This story of your tenacious and unselfish commitment to your scholars, their families and the community speaks volumes of the calling required to do this work. Read this book! Whether to advocate for all students as a teacher, administrator, or a parent, it will give you hope when you may feel that you've reached the end of your rope. This book spoke to me and gave me a renewed sense of purpose for why I became school leader. The brutal honesty expressed was refreshing. Thank you!
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- Anonymous User
- 01-18-24
Affirming my purpose!!!
Dr. Lopez reminded me that I am not alone in this journey. I have endured many of the heartaches and celebrated many of the wins, just as she has. This book should be read by all stakeholders, especially those in underserved communities. The sacrifices we make are much more than time, money, and energy. Very often we sacrifice family, friends, health, and even our last breath as educators. Legislators should read this to hear the cries of help and hopelessness educators feel because we desire more for our scholars and NEED more for our families! I am empowered to go on a little while longer because she has shared our stories.
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- Kindle Lovin' Toni
- 02-10-17
Great Story- Awesome Principal
Loved this story and the awesome dedication and commitment of the principal. I grew up in Brownsville many years ago and it wasn't like it is today but I still hold that neighborhood in my heart.
My most memorable moment in this book was knowing that the principal worked at my old elementary school. We lived across the street from it and all my mother had to do was look out the window to make sure we got there safe and in time.
I didn't care for the narrator that much. She read the book way too slow for me.
All and all, great story, great book and congratulations to the principal. We need more like her to help our children with rough lives living in a rough neighborhood.
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