Just after Christmas, I posted a piece about my class and how we sent boxes to 8 units in Iraq, with little goody bags and letters for each soldier with the smaller units, and a few staples and some letters for some bigger units. Well, 4 of the soldiers wrote my class back, and two of them just about communicate daily, graciously answering questions form my group of middle school exceptional children like, "what's for dinner?" or "did you have clean clothes today?" or "do you have a Valentine?". One contact, has been especially gracious. When I taught percent of change, I asked for two pictures, one with all the gear, and one without, and there on the overhead, was Charles gear and no gear, and the kids were glued to my math lesson for the day. We've read letters, emails, edited letters and emails to send, and figured out just how much each of those goody bags was worth for the customs forms...ok...well more because there were decimals involved and I was being sneaky..(but don't tell them...;) ) We sent poetry we wrote, and I shared poetry that our Marine enjoyed and had sent us from Iraq. We've enjoyed pictures with Santa Hats....all from my classroom, and they've been able to see what a total difference they have made by using what they had,with a little help from their teacher...and they've become better people.
Well, just when I thought that it totally could not get any better..today rolls around. Today, I got two emails from "our Marine". One was for the class, thanking them for the Valentine's package with the 30 goody packages and letters for each Marine in the unit. The other was directed to one particular student, who had written specifically to him because he loved poetry, and she can write it. She told him about the losses she has experienced (including the loss of her mother) and about how poetry has helped her to get through it, and she included a poem. He shared that he too had experienced loss, of several family members, and that her poetry helped him to think of things differently. She and I talked about the power of her words and thoughts, and she teared up. He helped her to realize the power in what she said, wrote, thought, and shared with the world. Wow....words cannot describe this....
Then, I got a strange email from him, asking about food allergies, lunch times, and numbers of students. Well, then I sent one back, about how what he was hinting at, whatever it was, was sweet, but unnecessary...and he told me he had already sent an email to the principal to ask permission to do what he wanted. He told my principal that my class gave some people in his unit the only Christmas or Valentine's Day presents they had (including him), and that everything that we had done had meant alot to him and his guys, and that he wanted to do a little something in return. My principal told him the "guidelines" we had to have for him to do what he wanted. The long and the short of it is that next week, he'll be "surprising" my kids with pizza, "delivered from" Iraq, for a special lunch from he and his guys, to let them know how much what they have done, shared, and said, means.
This is one situation where I honestly don't know who gained more from this experience, a group of Marines in the deserts of Iraq, or a group of kids, who don't always fit, and who don't have alot of confidence in themselves, in North Carolina.......I'm kind of thinking its a tie!