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Yesterday I cleaned out one of the bags I use for school visits. It’s surprising what I find in there. Old electric bills, paper scraps with hastily jotted-down ideas, Donald Trump’s taxes, lint-covered cookies (still delicious!), plus random notes and drawings that are handed to me by students mid-flight. As I rush down the hall seeking a bathroom, usually. The shy kid — with a friend, for bravery! — comes up and silently hands a paper to me. I am grateful, I am thankful, but I gotta go, so I stuff it into the bag, shake hands, and hurry to the next thing.
Thank you, sorry, gotta go.
Here’s one I wanted to share, because it’s all any of us ever really want. To feel noticed. To feel appreciated, recognized for our worth and our work. I am fortunate to enjoy a career where I am given notes like this one. Everyone should have that experience.
Thank you again Mr. President, for your recent National Monument designations in Maine and Hawaii. And thank you doubly to the awesome second graders at John Sevier Elementary in Marysville, TN for helping me out and for doing such great research on the polar bears and their Arctic lives! 45 ADDITIONAL Polar Bear Post Cards headed your way Mr. President! Keep that in mind as you consider a monument status for the 1002 :)
PS The John Sevier students even practiced their bear drawing before starting their first post cards!
A great new student contribution to the #polarbearpostcardproject today! After a school visit in June, this student wanted to keep working on her card beyond the time that we'd had in class. Her submission, which I remember at the time seeming sophisticated in its content for a 4th grader, finally found its way to me -- and this afternoon I passed it along to President Obama. If you are a teacher or librarian with climate change and arctic animal related curricula, I'm happy to do free 20-30 minute Skype visits to speak about my own trip to the Arctic and the reason that I'm painting and drawing all of these polar bears. Give me a call or send an email! #wearethearctic
A select few Polar Bear Post Cards from the kids at Daniel Bagley (more on the way!)
And a great post card (plus inspiring companion!) from a young home schooler :)
A few student contributions to the
Presidential Polar Bear Post Card Project have been rolling through the inbox of late... and today I am chatting with some excellent 4th and 5th graders at
Daniel Bagley Elementary in Seattle. Thanks for pitching in and adding a few more bears to President Obama's mail box you all.
If others are interested, revisit my
first post for an explanation and this later one for a
student template and the President's address at the White House :)
I'd love to see anything the you create and add them to the collection! Otherwise, stay tuned for more bears.
GRRR!
Erik
A tough time of year for fan mail, since I’m trying to respond before the school year ends. Oh well, I can only do my best. Here’s one that came from Canada — and included original art.
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I replied:
Dear Shane:
Thank you for your kind letter. I’m glad that you enjoyed the first book in the “Jigsaw Jones” series. I wrote 40 of them. (Crazy, I know.) But don’t worry, you don’t have to read them in order. Or any of them, for that matter.
When I searched “marshmallow monster” on my computer, I found this. Yipes! It has nothing to do with my book. I don’t think I’ll ever eat a marshmallow again.
The books are getting hard to find these days –- they like to hide in dark places, like hamsters -– but it sounds to me like your teacher has several in your classroom. Be sure to thank her for me.
Also, libraries are great places, don’t you think? I recommend that you go to the library often this summer. All those beautiful books and fabulous air conditioning!
I love that you included an illustration with your letter. What a nice bonus!
Have a terrific, fun-filled, book-filled summer.
My best,
James Preller
P.S. If you like scary stories, you might want to check out my “Scary Tales” series. There are four books out so far. You might want to wait a year or two, it depends on how you feel about spooky things. Maybe you should only read them during the day?
