Dear LTED 618 classmates

April 14, 2019 

Dear LTED 618 classmates,

How are you doing today? I’m doing well, but I have been very busy with work, school, and home life lately. Can you believe we are already almost at the end of the semester? It seems like these last few months have flown by!

Tonight, I’m looking forward to giving a genre expert presentation on letter writing. Even though teaching letter writing is not a requirement for teachers, I hope my presentation will open your eyes to the benefits of this form of writing for students of all ages. While my primary mode of letter writing these days is through email communication, I have enjoyed writing traditional letters practically my whole life.

Selfie with a mail truck!

I got my first pen pal in fourth grade through a volunteer pen pal program at my church. Her name was Sharon, we were the same age, and her family was Christian missionaries in Ireland. While I never met Sharon, I loved writing letters to her and learning about her life. She would send me postcards and photos of Ireland, and I would send her little trinkets and other things I thought she would like based on our correspondence. That same year, my elementary school adopted a heavy focus on letter writing. Every classroom was assigned a street name and given a class mailbox. Students were taught to write friendly letters to one another and given time to do so. We even had a “post office,” and would take turns playing the various roles including postmaster, mail clerk, and mail carrier. I remember really enjoying this yearlong project because I liked receiving letters from my friends after I wrote them letters, and it was fun to own the process by working in the “post office.”

Several years later, my pen pal was my cousin Danielle. We would write letters back and forth to each other every summer while she was at her family's cottage in the 1000 islands. I remember how excited I was to receive these letters, and how I became obsessed with printing out fun stationery prints on my home printer and then hand-writing the letters. I still have several of the letters she wrote at home at home, alongside store-bought stationery and envelopes that I use to write the occasional thank you note.

My high school had a mailbox system in every homeroom. Our homeroom teachers would put school communications like cafeteria menus, spirit day schedules, and photo order forms in these mailboxes. My friends and I enjoyed writing notes to each other and leaving them in each other’s mailboxes as well.

As an adult, most of my traditional (aka pen to paper) letter writing is limited to thank you notes or birthday cards. However, I look forward to the day when I can leave notes in my son’s lunchbox for him to read at school just like my mom did when I was a kid.

I hope you enjoy the presentation tonight. I'd love to hear your feedback. If you wish to share, please post a comment here or email me at mshippe0@naz.edu.

Sincerely,

Michelle