Tried It Tuesday (pen pals!)

It's time for Tried It Tuesday!  I know just about everyone is back to school and there are many things being "tried".  My team and I always talk after school at the beginning of the year about how far behind we are and all the things we aren't getting done.  Today, we had to remind ourselves that we just finished day THREE!  Haha!  The days just fly by and we never get accomplished what we thought we could.  Does anyone else have that problem?  I can almost see you nodding your head. :)

My Tried It:

Pen Pals
I have LOVED having pen pals for the past two years in my ELA class!  Hands down, the days we received letters from our pen pals were some of the most exciting "educational" days of the year!  There is just something magical about receiving a letter personalized for you from someone somewhere around the country.  The excited buzz throughout the room is just wonderful as they start reading their letters and talking about what their pen pal said or drew for them.  The students always worked hard on their letters and it was an example of a great, authentic assignment.

I was so disappointed to learn that my amazing pen pal from last year wouldn't work out for this year.  If you have been reading my blog, you know that we are departmentalizing now and I am teaching all three sections of ELA.  My pen pal from last year has 27 students and I have 48.  You can read some highlights from my experience with our Indianapolis pen pals from last year here and here.

So, how will I find pen pals for my three ELA classes this year?  I am hoping I can find a pen pal through my blog readers this year again!  I had such great luck last year and this way seems to much better than trying to find one through a site for pen pal requests (I have had problems with that before).

I Would Love to TRY Pen Pals Again This Year!
If you are a 4th grade teacher and need pen pals, please contact me!  I have 48 ELA students this year.  Your student number doesn't have to match exactly because there are always a few students who will volunteer to have more than one pen pal.  I am open to having more than one teacher at a school to pair up with too if you have about 48 students between two or three teachers.  I have three sections of students (17, 16, 15).  I would like to keep the teachers within the same school though so mailings all come together to make planning easier.  

Preferably, it would be nice to have pen pals from an urban area, southern state, or western state since I am in a small, rural town in New York State.  It is fun to have students with different backgrounds.  You can send me an email at lillycharlie2915@gmail.com if you are interested or leave me your email in the comments.  It would be helpful if you let me know where you teach and how many students you have.  Thank you!

UPDATE:  Thank you so much everyone!!!  I paired up with my first response of 4th graders that matched my numbers!!  Guess who?  It is Jivey from Ideas by Jivey and Gary from Scrappy Guy Desgins!!!  Did you know they work together on the same team?  I didn't! Lol! :)  I am super excited and will email those who expressed interest below to checkout some of the comments and send emails to others who may be interested too.  Please feel free to add your comment below if you are looking for a pen pal.  Someone may stop by and check it out!  If you get matched up, you could write that in the "reply" box.  Good luck matching up and thanks again for your support!

I also wanted to give you an update on my "Tried It Tuesday" link in the menu bar.  I haven't been adding more thumbnails under the categories since I saw this:    

Must be there is a limit on the number links on a page and I only have 100 remaining.  Any thoughts or suggestions on this?  I haven't looked into it much but there is probably a subscription fee I can pay to have this number increased.  For now, I will hold off adding more links.  Thank you for your understanding and patience! :)

Don't forget to enter the 1000 Followers Giveaway at Ideas by Jivey!! It's HUGE!!!