Motivating
Students - 4/25/24
How a Family & School Time Capsule Project Works
Effective student motivation is a neglected art. The Family & School Time Capsule Project
is an 18-year-old system working to end such neglect. It uses ancient priceless components, family
roots & goal setting, in constantly improving student motivation, confidence, &
self-image!
Part
1, The Family & School Time Capsule Mindset
Beginning in Pre-K, and for each grade thereafter through
high school graduation, each parent, grandparent, or other adult involved in
the life of a student, should be invited to write an annual letter to their student
about their dreams for them, with a personal story from their life also in the
letter to the student. This formula is the mindset: looking constantly forward to
dreams and life goals while also looking backwards to constantly explore family
stories and roots. This provides both a foundation and goals for each student
to work on. (See Attachment #1 below for the first letter writing
instructions.)
Each parent figure is invited to write their own individual
letter to their student. Each of them represents a different family with a
different history. Students are a combination of histories between 2 parents
and 4 grandparents, at least 6 families and 6 family histories. Every student
deserves a record of as many stories as possible about each of the 6 families,
or more who went before them. Annual letters help create that priceless record.
When the letter is completed, it should immediately be read
to the student by the person who wrote the letter, or read by the student
themselves if they are old enough to read it. The goal is to always have time
for a conversation between each letter writer and student. The student may have questions about the
letter. This is the type of conversation
every family wants to encourage. Phone calls are welcomed as many letter
writers may live far away.
The child’s parents collect all these letters, making two
copies of each letter. They place the original letters into an especially safe
place in the home to be used for the secure storage of these annual letters.
Then they should return one copy to each person who wrote a letter and then place
the final copy into the self-addressed envelope to send to school. That envelope should
have the date, the parent’s name, including phone number and email address, the
child’s name, grade, the teachers name as well as the school’s name, all on the
envelope, along with the family address. As older students secure their own
email address and cell phone number, that information should also be on the
envelope. This is the same set of information placed on every envelope to be
eventually returned to a student. We do not want any letters lost.
As the letters collect, a pattern may evolve and change for
each writer as parents and grandparents reflect in their letters how the
students themselves are growing and changing. Students change dramatically
every year from Pk through 12th grade. Those changes will now be
more frequently recorded in writing with evolving goals for the student.
Hopefully these observations will be documented by as many as all 6 people
whose history merged to bring this student into existence. Even if only one
person writes, they will be creating a powerful annual record!
Remember, before bringing any envelopes with letters to
school, every letter should be copied twice, with very good quality copies made.
One copy goes to the person who wrote the letter, and the other copy goes into
the envelope to go to school with the date, the parent’s name, including phone
number and email address, the child’s name, grade, the teachers name as well as
the school’s name. The original letters
all should be placed into one envelope for each year in a very secure place in
the home, hopefully even in a fire-resistant vault, like the fire-resistant
Time Capsule Vault the school uses to protect these valuable documents.
The sealed envelope with the valuable copies of these
letters is delivered to the school where parent or grandparent volunteers
called Time Capsule Postmasters for their child’s grade, will collect,
store, and retrieve these envelopes annually. They will be using the 500 to 700-pound
vault in the school lobby that serves as the School Time Capsule Vault
for secure storage. If you become one of the two or more Grade Time Capsule
Postmaster volunteers for your child’s grade, you may be working
about three days a year. Two Time Capsule Postmasters per grade are
needed. One Postmaster for each 70 students in a grade is recommended if
the classes are over 150 students.
As the Time Capsule Postmaster for your child’s grade,
you follow them year to year through to graduation! You will have priceless
time learning more about your child’s school and progress.
All students know that copies of the letters that were read
to them, or that they read themselves, are stored in the School Time Capsule Vault
year to year. They hopefully see the vault several times daily. It should be in
a school high traffic area, maybe the school lobby. Students are hopefully
reminded when they see the School Time Capsule Vault of what their parents,
grandparents, and they themselves wrote. They may make new plans for their life
as they think of these letters.
This mindset builds the most productive atmosphere for achieving the highest student motivation in all three types of schools serving different ages. If your student is in a Pk-12 school, all three parts apply. Otherwise, skip to the part for the grades your child is attending. Part 2 describes the general differences in a system serving Pk through 5th or 6th grade. Part 3 is for middle schools, generally grades 6 through 8. Part 4 is for high school.
Part 2
Elementary School, Pk - 5
As
you approach the school to enroll your pre-K age child you should be presented
with a enough copies of Attachment #1 below to give one to each parent and
grandparent, each person the family wants to write a letter to their student. See
the “Invitation to write a letter to your student” page which is Attachment 1
below. This invitation extends to each
of the child’s grandparents as well as other close relatives. Grandparents will
quickly realize the heritage they could leave by responding to this invitation to
write such a letter to their grandchild. Do you think grandparents would want to be
left out of this process once they find out what is being shared?
After
writing their letter to the student, each letter writer is asked to sit down
with the student, or call them by phone as needed, to read to the child the
letter they have written, or to listen to the student read it. Immediately
after reading the letter the adult asks the child questions to know the child understands
what was written. Hopefully encouraging such a discussion about family roots
and life goals and dreams will make such family discussions more common.
If you are a School Time Capsule Postmaster, each
year you return the year-old envelopes in the School Time Capsule Vault to each
student along with copies of that years letter writing instructions. (See Attachment
1 below.) You also need to be certain
all new parents are introduced to the project and receive the same letter
writing instructions. You can have an annual event at the school where parents
pick up the year-old envelopes in person along with Attachment #1. These directions with the year-old
letters will remind parents of the Time Capsule Project, explaining that these
are for each parent figure to first read again to their child again, and then
have each parent and grandparent write a new annual letter to their student.
They write new letters with updated dreams and another family history story,
which are also read to the student by each writer asking if the student has any
questions.
The goal is for parents and grandparents to always be
thinking of how their child is changing and how their dreams for them may have
changed. Also, as parents focus on writing a new story from family history in
each year’s letter, they will be documenting their valuable family history. Their
children will grow up with a wealth of documented stories, not word-of-mouth variations
that change over time in too many families. In many families too many family
stories are never recorded and simply forgotten.
This annual pattern of service by a parent volunteering as
their child’s Class Time Capsule Postmaster connects a parent to their
child’s class, from grade to grade. It helps them know the other students in
their child’s grade. Encourage parents to be Postmaster volunteers.
By third grade students themselves begin the annual process
of writing their own letter to each parent and grandparent asking for a letter
back. Students will ask to know the
dreams the person they are writing to has for them. They will also ask for
another story from family history. Attachment
#2 below is suggested wording for a letter to use from 3rd grade on
up through middle school.
Again, when students receive back letters from parents,
grandparents, or anyone they have asked for a letter, they immediately read
each one and talk with the letter writer about any questions they have about
what was written. Such conversations around dreams for the student, and family
history stories in these letters will hopefully lead to an increasingly common
set of topics in family conversations. How valuable would that be for our
students? In the 3rd grade is also when students begin writing an
annual letter to themselves about their thoughts on each letter they have received
and their own plans for their future. This priceless letter also goes into the
envelope.
Part 3
Middle School, grades 6-8
Letters are written annually year to year through middle
school. The grade Time Capsule
Postmasters return the year-old letters in the 6th 7th
and 8th grades. This will require securing any letters they can from
the elementary schools with Time Capsule Projects sending students into their 6th
grade. In 8th grade in such
separate middle schools, the letters written all focus on goals 10 years into
the future. This creates a 10-year class reunion for 8th graders
when these letters are returned, a valuable tradition.
Part 4 High School, Grades 9th through Graduation
The only other change is in high school for the 12th
grade when the focus is 10 years into the future for all letters. A family history
story continues to be part of every parental letter from 9th grade
through 12th. (See Attachment #3 below.)
As these older students write an annual letter to each parent and grandparent,
they can include more specific requests such as for specific family history
stories to be repeated, maybe with more detail. The letters each year will
allow four more stories to be collected during high school from each parent and
grandparent. A wealth of family history can be collected!
The 12th grade letters will remain in the High
School Time Capsule Vault until the 10-year class reunion. At their 10-year reunions
these young adults will present their identification to be certain letters are returned
to the right students. We do not want anyone to somehow lose their letters. Identification
is required to reclaim an envelope at all reunions.
The 10-year reunions can be assisted by the Postmaster
volunteers for each class, but staff may need to volunteer to help reunions
be consistent. The Class Postmaster Volunteers would only see one such
reunion for each grade they volunteer for. As an Alumni group grows, they will be able to
put on the annual 10-year reunions which the Grade Postmasters only need to attend
with the box of alphabetized envelopes to return to former students for that
graduation class. They could also have boxes
of envelopes for older classes who had not yet picked up their letters.
At all reunions the school can ask for volunteers from the
alumni attending, such as Career Day speakers to return to the school to speak
to current students when Career Day events happen at school. Imagine the power
a person who was sitting in your child’s seat just 10 years earlier may have. The
value of Career Day events will improve.
Part 5
The Future
Imagine if you had 14 sets of letters from each parent and
grandparent for your 14 years in school. It would be rare to have all those
letters, but any letters you receive would be a priceless family record! Someday you may share them with your children
and grandchildren, to possibly be copied and passed on to future generations.
Sadly, it is possible some of the older letter writers may
have passed away by the 10-year reunions making their letters truly priceless. While
the death of an older adult may be more common, we have also had two students
who passed away from accident and illness among the 1,700 students invited to
the first 5 Quintanilla 8th grade reunions from 2015 until 2019. (The
Covid Pandemic shut down the Project in Dallas ISD, including all reunions,
starting in 2020.) Parents of the children who had died responded to the
reunion invitation postcards sent out with their tragic news. They asked for,
and were very thankful to be able to receive, the valuable letters that they
and their child had written 10 years earlier.
Imagine how students
will change during these years due to such letter writing exchanges every year.
In the schools with active Time Capsule Project letter writing, we have had a
firm drop in teen pregnancies, truancies, dropouts, and related behavioral
issues. Family bonds strengthen. Gangs have less value for students. Student
achievement has risen constantly as students plan for their futures with more
self-confidence from a better knowledge of family roots and stories, and their
own life goals.
The SEI, or School
Effectiveness Indices, scores each year for all schools are used to verify the
value of the Time Capsule Project. The SEI is described in the DISD Data Portal
as “Dallas ISD's value-added measure of the academic performance of a
school's students. The SEI model is an alternative to evaluating school performance
with absolute measures such as passing rates. SEIs are a fairer method for
determining a school's effect on student performance because they take into
consideration known factors over which school personnel have no control, such
as socio-economic status, language proficiency, and gender.”
You can read about the SEI measure at https://mydata.dallasisd.org/SL/SD/SEI/Default.jsp. You will quickly understand why the SEI is used to
measure Time Capsule Project progress in the spreadsheets documenting such progress. Study the document titled; “SEI
Data 2006-2023 for 32 DISD Middle Schools, the School Time Capsule Project”, to
see data proving school improvements with the Time Capsule Project, and
declines in achievement when letter writing stops.
This open-source School Time Capsule Project needs formal
research. Please share this with anyone planning a PhD in human behavior or
education to help research happen. It will certainly lead to the publication of
at least one book!
4/25/24
Bill Betzen, LMSW (Emeritus), 12-year-retired Dallas ISD middle school teacher
bbetzen@aol.com
See Attachments 1, 2, & 3 below
=========== Attachment #1 ==============
Dear
Parent, Grandparent, and anyone involved with a child in Pre-k through 5th
grade.
We are
writing to you to begin a tradition we hope to follow until your child
graduates from high school.
Imagine
if for every year you attended school, possibly from Pre-K through graduating
high school, you received letters from each parent and grandparents, as well as
other involved relatives, to you about their dreams for you. Each letter also included another story from
their family history. Would your life have changed?
Every
human comes from a minimum of six families: 2 parents and 4 grandparents. For many reasons one or more of those 6
individuals may be missing, and/or other relatives and family friends involved.
The more stories a child can collect, and the more stories other family members
and friends can fill in, the better.
Obviously,
the letters you write will have to be simple for the younger child and will
gain details and facts as your child grows. The goal is to get the process started so your
child knows more each year about the family histories they are part of, and
about the dreams in your family for their future.
Once
completed each letter writer will read their letter with the child and be ready
for any questions they may have.
Hopefully this will become a valuable annual process as your child and
you each learn more about each other with each annual letter.
A
parent should collect the letters and make two copies of each one. The originals are kept in a safe place in the
family home. One copy goes to each letter writer, and one goes into an envelope
that is sent to school. That envelope should have the date, the parent’s name,
including phone number and email and home address, the child’s name, grade, the
teachers name as well as the school’s name, all on the envelope. We do not want
these copies lost as they are to be read each year by everyone involved before
the new letters are written.
Think
of these letters during the year as to what you can write next year. Explore
family history to add more such priceless stories each year.
Ask
the Family & School Time Capsule Postmaster for your child’s class, or the
teacher, any questions you may have.
=========== Attachment # 2 ==============
3rd through 8th
grade (Suggested wording to be edited as needed)
Invitation for each parent, grandparent,
or other involved adult, to respond to the letter now written by your student asking
for a letter back.
Dear
Parent, Grandparent, and anyone with a child in 3rd through 8th
grade.
We are
beginning, or continuing, a tradition hopefully you were able to be involved
with for your student in earlier grades. This year we are taking advantage of
your students’ writing ability. With these instructions you should also receive
a letter from your student asking for a letter from you to them about your
dreams for them. They will also be
asking for a story from your family history.
Imagine
if you had received such letters every year you attended school. Every human comes from a minimum of six
families: 2 parents and 4 grandparents.
For many reasons one or more of those 6 individuals may be missing, and
other adults may be important in a child’s family. The more stories a child can
collect, and the more stories other family members can fill in for the missing
branches of the family, the better.
With
each passing year the letters you write can be more detailed with more facts as
your student grows. The goal is to constantly
improve the process. Your child should know more each year about the families
they are part of, and about the dreams in their family for them.
Once
completed your student will immediately read your letter and hopefully do it
with you present (either in person or by phone) so they can ask you any
questions they may have. Hopefully this will become a valuable annual process
as your child and you each learn more about each other.
In the
8th grade there will be one major change. All letters will focus on dreams 10 years
into the future. What are your dreams for your student 10 years from now? These 8th grade letters will
remain in the Family & School Time Capsule Vault in the school for 10
years.
A
parent should collect each of the letters received, including their own to
their child, and make two copies of each one.
The originals are kept in a safe place in the family home. One copy goes
to each letter writer, and one goes into the envelope that is sent to school.
Think
of these letters during the year as to what you can write next year. Explore
family history to add more such priceless history each year.
Ask
the Family & School Time Capsule Postmaster for your child’s class, or the
teacher, any questions you may have.
========== Attachment # 3 ===============
9th through 12th grade (Suggested wording to be
edited as needed)
Invitation
for each parent, grandparent, or other involved adult, to respond to the letter
from their high school student asking for a letter back.
Dear Parent, Grandparent, and anyone with a child in our
school,
We are beginning, or continuing, a tradition hopefully you
were are able to be involved with for your student in earlier grades. With
these instructions you should receive a letter from your student asking for a
letter from you to them about your dreams for them. They will also be asking for a story from
your family history.
Imagine if for every year you attended school you received
letters from each parent and each of your grandparents about their dreams for
you. Each letter also included another
story from their family history. Every human comes from a minimum of six
families: 2 parents and 4 grandparents.
For many reasons one or more of those 6 individuals may be missing, and
other adults may be important in a child’s family. The more stories a child can
collect, and the more stories other family members can fill in, the better.
With each passing year the letters you write can be more
detailed with more facts as your student grows.
The goal is to constantly improve the process. Your child should know
more each year about your family’s history and the dreams in your family for
their future.
Once completed your student will immediately read your
letter and hopefully do it with you present (either in person or by phone) so
they can ask any questions they may have. Hopefully this will become a valuable
annual process as your child and you each learn more about each other.
In the 12th grade there will be one major
change. All letters will focus on dreams
10 years into the future. What are your dreams for your student 10 years from
now? These 12th grade letters
will remain in the Family & School Time Capsule Vault in the school for 10
years. At that time your adult child will have their first 10-year high school
class reunion and receive back these 10-year-old letters from the vault.
A parent should collect each of the letters received,
including their own to their child, and make two copies of each one. The originals are kept in a safe place in the
family home. One copy goes to each letter writer, and one goes into the
envelope that is sent to school.
Think of these letters during the year as to what you can
write next year. Explore family history to add more such priceless history each
year.
Ask the Family & School Time Capsule Postmaster for
your child’s class, or the teacher, any questions you may have.