Teaching Hope (Rejuvenation)

Entry 115 was the first to catch my eye. It hit me on a very personal level because I know from first-hand how great a pen pal can be. Having the chance to talk to someone that you have never met or never seen is really something special. It’s exciting to know that whatever you say, someone, from somewhere else is going to read it and there is a good chance that they will reply back to you. I had a little different experience but it still involved a pen pal. I was in elementary school when we were given this opportunity. I wasn’t writing to someone that was across the country but rather to someone who was a couple of towns over. When you’re in elementary school, that feels like a place far, far away. I didn’t know it at the time but I would later find out that my pen pal would become my best friend for many years. Pen pals are a great opportunity for every student to experience because they get to see things from two different perspectives, from someone they have never met before.

It's stories that are full of hope and progress like in entry 125 that people need to hear more about. In order to help her students and get them to new experiences that would hopefully change their outlook on life, this teacher found a way to get them to Arkansas on a budget. It’s not easy to take kids out on a field trip that also has them camping out in the woods. There are a lot of hoops to jump through that many teachers may not be willing to do. It is things like that, that can make an amazing impact on a student’s life and change the way they look at the world and see their place in it, as well as where they could go. If there were more teachers who thought like this and were willing to get things done to give their students an experience they would never forget, our education system would sky rocket in a positive way.