thank you

On Friday, I was stuck on ideas for a lesson plan. We had just ended one thing, but I didn't really want to start another unit until Monday. I had a moment of inspiration on the drive to work to have my students write "thank you" notes to teachers as a nice little Thanksgiving idea.

I created a little template on my computer, printed off the notes on different colored paper, and then at the beginning of each class we had a little discussion on what it means to be thankful for people in our lives. I wrote a sample "thank you" note to my students on the board and then assigned them to write 3 "thank you" notes--2 to teachers or other adults at WL and 1 to one other person of their choice (a family member or friend). I told them not to just write a note to me since they were doing the assignment in my class. I was hoping that the majority of ALL WL teachers would receive thank you notes. I was instantly surprised with two things; 1) how much the students got into writing the "thank you" notes, many of them wanted to write more than 3, and 2) the quality of their messages were more than just a short sentence, but more meaningful and heartfelt.

At the end of each class, I collected the notes and began organizing the notes in piles by each teacher. I felt very lucky to receive so many notes. I held onto my notes until after school and read them all with a few Kleenex's handy. The messages in my "thank you" notes were varied, things like, "Thank you for helping me write better paragraphs," "Thank you for giving me a chance to prove that I can behave well," "Thanks for getting me more interested in English," "Thanks for putting up with me," "Thanks for not giving up on me," and "Thanks for understanding us." I also had many notes with things regarding the baby: "I'm going to buy your baby a University of Utah outfit (or BYU outfit, depending on the student," "Your belly is getting so cute," "I hope your baby and you have a lot of good food on Thanksgiving," "Your baby will be lucky to have you as a mom," and "I'm happy that you're going to have a baby."

I was overwhelmed with these notes. I had told the students that these kind of things make a teacher's day and they certainly made my day. The picture above is a shot of my letters scattered across my desk. I hung up each note on the closet doors behind my desk so that I will have a reminder that I'm making an impact in the lives of my students and to never give up on them even though they drive me absolutely crazy sometimes. THANK YOU, students!!