How do you say Thank You

Well, online of course, and if you have a blog, you do it there - because it's even more powerful when others can see your thanks. I remember so well the lessons taught me by my parents about sending thank you notes - mostly for birthday presents and Christmas presents. You just had to do it - and quick. As a grown up, I'm really bad about it anymore. But when the opportunity comes up in class, well, we do it - but now, without the cards, the pencils, the postage stamps, and the trip to the post office. Here's what I just posted on my classroom blog:

This post is a thank you to two people. First up is Mr. Glenn Malone, who loaned us "Tami", our fourth XO Laptop. Here's what the students in Room Twelve had to say during Tami's last two days in our classroom:

Thanks For Tami- Jade
Letter - Kayla
Tami - Katherine
Thank you Mr. Malone - Chris
Dear Mr. Malone - Zareya
Tami - Noelle
Thanks for Tami - Ryder
Tami!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Kaitlin
Thank you For Tami - Adam
Thanks for Tami - Suad
Tami - Bryce
Mr. Malone - Dalila
Thanks for Tami - Emily
XO Laptop - Sonny
Thank you - Alec
Thank You - Laurel
Thanks For Tami - Marcela
Thank you note - Gabrielle
Thanks for Tami - Gwendalin
Thanks Mr. Malone - William
Thank You - Colton
Dear Mr. and Mrs. Malone - Lillie
(the three remaining are in final edit
mode)

The second thank you goes to Mr. David Warlick, who recently upgraded our blog by adding a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor to make it easy for students to add links, format text, and add pictures! Many, many thanks! - Mr. Ahlness

Looking back, it was a good excercise in writing - with a little social responsibility thrown in for good measure. I found it interesting in a couple of ways. It was real easy for my kids to write about this. Their thank yous were genuine - and it was interesting to note their different approaches.

I was also tickled that several used this short assignment to play with the new graphical blogging tool. Many played with fonts and colors, of course. But several also were very interested in including hyperlinks to people and places in their writing. Showing them how was a snap. One trial learning, I do love it. Powerful stuff.

tags: xo olpc roomtwelve