Dear Miss Wright,

At the end of every semester my students spend a class period writing letters to one of their teachers. When I read through the letters I receive I find myself laughing at some of the things they remember or notice. I love when I'm surprised by who writes them to me too. Writing excerpts on Overlap helps me remember these students later on and lets you get my kids' perspective on Miss Wright. Each of the following paragraphs is from a different student.

Dear Miss Wright,

One of my favorite things with you was at Wyld Life when you danced with me, Maddy, Rachel, Lulu and Kylie in our dance circle. I hope that next year I can still see you. You always have a smile on your face and are always cheerful.

I will never forget the soft jazz music that you always played in class, and how Garrett would try to tell you that he knew all of the songs you played. I know I always wanted you to play music with words in it during class, but I made it through the year with soft jazz. As I get older I want to become a person like you who is always positive and nice to everyone.

I will never forget the day when I came into class after Wellness on game day with my tie and nice clothes all messy and I had to change in the closet. I had to skip 10 minute write to put on my clothes in the closet. After I got out, Andrew had to help me put my tie on and help me look good. You are the best teacher on this planet because you taught me writing techniques and how to be a better person.

You taught me to enjoy the simple things in life and to live life to its fullest because you never know when it will end. You always have a wide smile on your face and are a role model for kids and parents alike. Emotions spread like wildfire; they are contagious. Just by being your happy self, you can change a person's day.

You have taught me that not all teachers are boring outside of school. I have seen the things you post on Instagram and they are awesome. I will never forget the day with KCraig came in to visit for the first time. I heard a knock on the door and then the crazy teacher started being loud. Whenever KCraig comes in it's a blast.

Thank you for helping me face my fear of sharing in front of the class. Now I am used to sharing ten minute writes so when I got to other classes I'm not afraid to share.

In just one semester with you I learned the most about how to write and how to use good writing techniques. Like Sponge Bob once said, "TECHNIQUE!" is what you need for almost everything in life. Yes, it is still boring, but I like writing about the interesting topics you pick for ten minute writes every day.

I will never forget the day when you almost cried from laughing which made everyone else laugh too. It was the day when that one girl said she didn't care about Mr. Hodgin because she did not know him. You had to sit on the floor because you were laughing so hard.

I will never forget the day when you talked to us about all the sicknesses you have gotten when you are at camp. You explained to us that you had to drink this gross powder that you put in water to help you not catch diseases. I thought that was funny because of how much effort you put into not getting sick at camp. That shows how you don't want to miss a day of fun and you are always looking for adventure.

Another great time is when we eat lunch with you on Fridays. It is a new tradition, but it has been a blast, and I love coming down to your room to eat pizza bagels and talk about life. We named our group the Pizza Bagel Posse after our main food group: Pizza Bagels. It was so funny when one time the bagels were too hot and burnt and then the next Friday they were mushy and had little ice specks still on the cheese.

I always enjoy coming to English Comp because I know that I will have fun and learn something new. I apologize for all of the times when I lost my self-control and blurted out something stupid. Every day you would find a way to make even the most boring lesson fun by playing cool jazz and other relaxing music. I enjoyed "making fun" of Mason for his Nike shirt that said "Basketball Never Stops." My favorite moment this year was when you doubted my ability to make friendship bracelets and I proved you wrong in front of the whole class by making a gorgeous blue and green tornado style friendship bracelet.

I hope that you are my chaperon next year for the Washington DC trip. I hope to see you at Tecumseh this summer. Next year Mason and I will visit you in the hall. Thank you for putting up with Mason and me for 90 days!

I never enjoyed getting made fun of but I always knew you were kidding. I'm going to wear my "Basketball Never Stops" shirt on the last day of school for you. I can't wait for DC next year with everyone and I'm crossing my fingers that you will be my counselor with my friends. You will honestly make the trip 100x better with the jokes you say and the funny things you do.

Every time I walk into your classroom you make me all happy and excited for class. My favorite lesson would be the articles we wrote and researched. I like researching because we get to find out more about old things that happened in history. I will never forget the day when Gavin walked in the classroom late and he had his shirt untucked. He had to go into the little cabinet and change. It was funny because he was yelling, "I can't see anything!" and we were all laughing. We were going to lock him in there but that would have been mean.

My favorite project in your class was when we made yearbook pages and wrote random facts about people like, "Miss Wright wears pants with the REALLY cool pockets." You always have that "Wright" smile on your face. You are kind and include everybody, which is a hard thing to do, but you do it anyway. You do lots of hard things, like make two friendship bracelets a day! I am so impressed by that.