This adventure started for my classroom as a simple Facebook post and that small social media post influenced every single one of my students.
Here's the story.
My beautiful cousin, Erin bravely started a journey through the Peace Corps about two years ago. This journey took her to Benin, Africa where she has completed a variety of different service opportunities and has had multiple English learning students. Erin posted one day that she was looking for some pen pals to allow her students practice at writing and reading English. As a Middle School Social Studies teacher, I have the opportunity to teach a class I love called World Cultures which focuses on how people in different areas of the world live today. When I saw Erin's post, I began the task of planning a unit surrounding Africa. I commented back to Erin's post telling her I had about 40 sixth grade students who would be learning about Africa and how I would love to take her up on this amazing opportunity. Erin emailed me back agreeing to help create a pen pal system between our classes. I never knew truly how much this experience would impact my students.
When I introduced the idea of having pen pals, my students were immediately excited. The next day my students came to class excited and prepared. They all had charged laptops and were ready with topics they wanted to talk to their pen pals about. I did a quick lesson with my students about life in Benin, Africa via the pictures I had seen on Erin's Facebook. They soaked up the information and immediately realized the struggles our new friends may be facing. It became real.
When we began writing, my students were so excited to talk to their pen pals about sports, classes they enjoyed, their friends and where they lived. While reading their work, I was incredibly impressed with the time they spent writing their letters, making sure they were clear so our friends in Benin could clearly understand our letters.
Then what happened next, changed everything.
Two of my students who typically struggle to be motivated came up to me and asked if we could do something to help our new friends. When I asked why they would like to do this, they simply said, "Well we realized we have a lot more things than they do. If they want to learn, we should help them get supplies that we have that help us learn." The next day in class, we brainstormed how we could come up with the money to send a package of supplies all the way to Benin. The students came up with two ideas: to make and sell friendship bracelets and to have a bake sale at their upcoming Music Concert. Graciously, the chorus and band director agreed to support our fundraiser.
We spent two days in class making friendship bracelets. This was where I saw a large change in the classroom dynamics. This group of students tended to struggle with cliques as they rarely ventured outside of their friend groups. However, when we were making bracelets, my classroom became a community. They helped one another out to make the best bracelets they could. Then the students planned the bake sale and organized what each student could bring. The night of the bake sale, all of the sixth graders ran to me multiple times asking if we were all ready and if I thought they could possibly raise enough money to send our package. Although I was skeptical, I was quickly proven wrong.
The bake sale was absolutely amazing. We were able to raise over $300 and with that money we could afford the outrageous shipping costs and still manage to pack a large box full of pencils, colored pencils, writing books and many other school supplies. Finally about a week ago, I got a wonderful e-mail from Erin telling me that our package had arrived in Benin. Looking back on this experience, I came to realize how much it influenced my classroom dynamic and each one of my students.
To say I am extremely proud of my students is an understatement. The few weeks while we learned about Africa and worked on our pen pal project was where I saw the most learning happen. My students learned how to be humble and proud of what they had. They saw how a group of students like them were still happy, regardless of the limited material possessions they had. My students saw how a group of children were happy and proud to go to school and it helped restore their passion in learning. My students came to class excited again. My students learned kindness. They learned how they have the ability to make a difference in someone else's life. My students learned the power of teamwork. They needed each other in order to make this project a success. My favorite part of this experience was how I didn't come up with any of it—the students created their own learning. They took an idea of sending a package of school supplies and turned it into a reality. For the first time throughout the school year, I saw a group of students proud of themselves and proud of one another. It was such an amazing experience to watch this unfold in my classroom. I could not be more thankful for my students, the staff that helped our project, and the parents who baked for hours and hours to make our class's dream come true. But most importantly, thank you to my cousin Erin whose kindness, generosity and dedication to her students made this experience possible for mine.
