Such an intimate journey into families' complex dynamics and finances. Glad it's over.

Our school went proactive and had the vice principal make a big deal about it over morning announcements, which pretty much killed it early on in the day!

Yup, exactly! They have to figure out which family I'm describing.

Here's how I do it. There's an info gap aspect which makes it more communicative & interesting in my opinion. I call it a dictée because middle schoolers can't handle the real name. #langchat

I trust you've listened to this episode? www.thisamericanlife.org/851/transcript

Do you find that today's students don't quite believe they're writing to other humans when it's all digital? This has kept me doing a mix of digital and snail mail.

If anyone's looking to get started on a communications exchange, here's a blog post that describes my process and tips: mmeblouwolff.weebly.com/revolutioniz...

Middle school teachers be warned: NEVER refer to this activity by its actual name. You'll be cooked before you've begun!

Thanks for the tip! I will check it out.

Me too... and one of my kids is NOT happy about it!