That time I spent 5+ hours writing letters...

I am fortunate enough to have about 95% of my students for the entire school year.   This year, I chose to take a huge chunk of time and write each student a letter. 

In the letter, I made sure to include a few things:

• Let the student know I'm glad they're in my class again 
• Any praise for first semester accomplishments
• Areas of concern/goal setting with my point of view
• Any other tid bits - quotes, a story, etc...

When the kids saw that I wrote them each a letter and even put it in an envelope for them - they were thrilled.   Even my students with the eternal poker face(s) smiled.  Here is a photo of them going for their letters and reading them.  

I found myself curious as to what they would do with their letters.   Would they roll their eyes?   Would they trash them?    Would they enjoy them?   After they were done reading, they were asked to put their letters away because I was hoping they'd take some time to reflect and then write me back (if they wanted to).

The next day, every student chose to write back.   Reading their replies was a serious moment for me.  Some of their replies made me laugh.   Some made me cry.   I wrote to one student and told them that I was disappointed to see what a chatterbox they had become last term.   I told this student from my point of view that when he was having a side conversation, I processed it as rude and sometimes disrespectful.   In his reply back, he was COMFORTABLE enough to tell me HIS point of view on this.   He said, "I know I talked a lot with ________ last semester and I'm sorry if that bothered you.  I just would rather have been redirected because I didn't have the heart to not listen to _____ and what he had to say because I know they don't have a lot of friends.  I just wasn't good enough at it to not get caught."   Hello!  Perspective!  Honesty!

The following replies are shared with permission...

So now... after this response and seeing those smiles... this teacher needs to get herself to Target and make up some Valentine's for these kids because they definitely are a work of heart!