Hello, blog. I missed you!

Wouldn’t you know it takes snail mail to get me back to posting on my much-missed blog!

A few weeks ago, our school received two letters from middle school participants in The Great Mail Race: Fruit Cove Middle School in Florida, and Godwin Heights Middle School in Michigan. Thank you to Vivian and Arnav whose letters landed in my teacher mailbox.

What is the Great Mail Race? An engaging way to have your students write authentic friendly letters to peers around these great United States. Students choose to type or hand write a letter to a class in another state. Easy-to-follow guidelines are posted on the website, as well as lists of teachers and students who are craving mail.

In our classroom, we’ve opted for the element of surprise. Students identified the middle schools to which they’d write by searching “state name + middle school” on Google. Some wanted specific towns or cities, like “San Diego, CA middle schools” or “Salt Lake City, Utah middle schools.” Digging up middle schools was a breeze. Navigating the school websites and locating an English or Social Studies teacher to whom the student could write required slightly more investigation. Still, my awesome sixth graders figured it out and got busy writing their letters of introduction.

I’m really excited that this writing project landed in my mailbox. The students researched the schools, and went to work drafting letters that showcased our school,  our state, as well as their individual interests. Next week, we’ll print out the letters from Google Docs, tuck them in envelopes, and use our best sixth grade handwriting to pen the addresses. Then, we’ll wait (impatiently, of course) for our shipments to come in.

I’ll report back on our responses, too, when they begin trickling in.

Boy, it’s nice to be back in the blogosphere. 🙂

Mrs. Rombach