Colorado Pen Pals!!!

Another African American male 3rd grade teacher, out of Colorado, reached out to me in order to forge an old fashion 3rd grade pen pal program between our two classes. He expressed just how much he anticipated the partnership between the two classes and even between us as colleagues, both being black men in a field dominated by women first and ostensibly white.

On Friday we received our first set of handwritten letters. After a weekend and two additional days off, we finally read the letters today. Yesterday I hyped the class up and read the names of those who received letters (everyone). Yesterday, we also identified Pennsylvania on a map and traveled westward with our fingers to Colorado.

Today, we identified Pennsylvania using Google Earth and let the Earth spin as we traveled westward to Colorado! After reading the letter sent to me by their teacher, they got the opportunity to read the letters of their new friends.

"Excited" does not accurately capture the energy in the air as they read their letters and were naturally drawn to each other and to their teacher with what they learned about their pen pal and with "Mr. Flemming, how do you pronounce this (name)?"

Tonight, they, with their parents, are drafting return letters!

THIS is real writing! It serves a real purpose! Every now and then there is nothing wrong with old school methods of teaching. Since being forced to move from a classroom with 21st century teaching technology, I've been forced to go old school with the teaching of some lessons. Having pen pals took me right back to some of those other old school teaching methods and mindsets, especially in a world of texting, emailing, "DM"ing, and "messaging".

To get Biblical, Jeremiah 6:16 does say in part, "...Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein,..." For purposes of this post, I won't finish the post, but it has something to do with the recipients of such a command refusing to do so!