When arriving home today from summer trip # 1, I found a letter in the mail from one of my students. It's so nice in between the bills and junk mail (and the renewal for that one thing I caved and signed up for one day on the street) to get a lovely little note from one of the kids. In her letter, she wrote,Thank you for teaching me stuff in second grade that I didn't know in first grade.
And that, in a nutshell, is my job. "Come to me in September, child, possessing only that limited knowledge of a first grader (have they ever even HEARD of silent letters? Geez. ), and I will fill your head with the incredible wisdom of a second grader." That's approximately how it works. And clearly with Amber I have succeeded!
In general, children do not seem to have much to report in their summer letters. Factor one, perhaps, is that the lazy days of summer are filled with, well, laziness, which doesn't have much news value. And I imagine that factor two must be that many kids have lots of important and interesting happenings in their lives--that just don't strike the average grown-up as important or interesting. Here are some of the important and interesting summer happenings that have filled some of the kids' summer letters over the years.
Lacey, my 5 year old sister, has new pajamas.
The pool was too deep for me when I got in I felled in the water
My cousins birthday Just passed he turned 3 years old.
After we got threw swimming my mom and her brother's girl friend went to go get some pizza.
Come the start of the year when my group returns for round two of our 2-grade relationship, I will be rather up to date on all of the sisters' new clothing, the cousins' new ages, and the details of exactly who all went to go get some pizza.
5 comments:
Do you give out your home address?
I really wanted to do that this summer with my kids but I wasn't sure that I should.
A few of them love to write me letters and it would have been great for them to continue over the summer.
I think it's cool that you did this with your students! It's sad that writing actual LETTERS has really become something that kids just don't do.
It cracks me up the regular, everyday things that they feel compelled to report to you! Makes me feel like my own summer isn't so boring after all.....oh, and nobody in my family has new pajamas.
That's so great that you hear from your students over the summer! Do you write them back?
I love how the mundane details of life are so awesome to kids that they're newsworthy :)
Thanks for the smile -- great comments from students. I'm always too worried to give my address to students. A few live in my neighborhood and have followed me around when I'm out and about...a tad scary. Needless to say, I've been hesitant to give out my address after stalking episodes. Good on you...and rewarded with great letters, no less!
Yes, I do give out my home address--fortunately nobody following me around! Yikes!
I write them back, telling what I've been up to over the summer :) I also try to pick up some postcards from wherever I've been (got some good whale ones after my whale watch!), but I end up putting those in an envelope anyway, because I tuck in another envelope for them to write back. We don't usually go too many rounds, though ;)
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