Letter from a Student

A couple of weeks ago I received this letter on facebook from one of my former students. It was a complete surprise and made my whole year. When you read it, you'll understand why.

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Hi Ms. Mclean!

I know that I haven't spoken to you in forever, but I think that I owe you (and B.) some thanks. Even though, as a student, I didn't enjoy going to B., it was mainly because of the small student body and what I felt was an inability to branch out, try different things, or grow as a person. I always really appreciated the efforts of my teachers. I will always remember being able to join the "adults" for the teacher book club discussion on The Lovely Bones (have you seen the movie? What did you think?)

Also, learning how to research effectively was one aspect of B. that students in other schools apparently don't get. I go to the University of Central Florida and I'm a senior. As an English major, I see all types of levels of knowledge of the students around me. Some still don't know correct English grammar (periods, capitalization at the beginning of sentences, quotation marks). Some students are very well-learned.

While most students here quail at the thought of having to do work, for example, a research paper, I actually enjoy it. I still prefer books over anything over the Internet, but I have been able to use specifically the Google tools I remember you teaching us (site:edu and site:org and such) to help me. I also used my NoodleBib account up until this month, when my association with B. was too long gone for NoodleBib to let me in anymore.

A few years ago, I actually won the Information Fluency Award at UCF for the undergraduate level from the library. I won the award for persuasive speech that I had written regarding the possibility of the Loch Ness monster being alive. I used simple techniques to research my information, but, according to the UCF library, they were ingenious techniques (I learned them all at B.).

So thank you! =]

-S. L. c/o 2007 .