As one of my colleagues said this afternoon, the art of the thank-you note is fading. I have always believed that a thank-you note is an extremely important gesture in relationships with family and friends. However, in this age of instant writing and email, the practice of writing old fashioned thank-you notes is not as common as it once was.
We're going to change this. Not for the whole world or anything, but we are going to write a thank-you to Kristen Plummer, a SAVES (Sexual Assault Victims Emergency Services) advocate who volunteered her time and energy in our classroom to prepare us for reading Speak. Ms. Plummer helped to show us the common signs that someone has been sexually assaulted and to talk with us about how to find help for someone who has been sexually assaulted. She really helped to set us on the right path to meet our main character, Melinda. We were able to approach her story with a deeper understanding because of Ms. Plummer's presentation.
Today you finished the drafting and editing portions of this process, and most of you even completed your final thank-you notes. I brought in actual thank-you cards for you to choose from. I will present these cards to Ms. Plummer once we have them all finished. I'm sure that she will be pleased with your thoughtful words and heartfelt thanks.
Next class, we'll move on to writing our group poem over Speak. This should be an exciting process-- I can't wait to see how it all turns out!
