A Million Words or Less

This week I gave my first writing assignment. My students have to write me a letter using a million words or less telling me everything I should know about them. Because I would never make my students do something that I wouldn't do I wrote them a letter. I always feel really self conscious about this because I don't think I'm that great of a writer and I don't really know these kids yet but they were really awesome. They laughed in the right places and applauded me when I was done. Reading my letter to my class made me really excited to read theirs. The best part was that they asked a lot of questions after I was finished. It seemed like they were actually interested about my life!
I did this assignment last year and thought it was awesome because it is two-fold. I get to know my students and I get to see what we need to work on with their writing this year. I also give the kids an opportunity for extra credit by having their parents write me a letter about their child. These are my favorite letters to read because the parents have such awesome things to say about their kids and I get to know my students in a different way!
This year I added a little something new. I made a power point with photos of all the people that are in my life and were in my letter. The first picture they saw was this one of me when I was 1 year old. They loved it! I think all of this gave them a little more direction for their letters. This was such a great way to end the first week of school and I am so excited about getting their letters on Tuesday!