A BIG THANK YOU for all your Thank You letters

Several weeks ago, I promised Mrs. Linda Thomas from Scottsdale Unified School District that I would volunteer to help out in the summer program that she and her colleagues organized for their district’s middle school ESL students. But she also invited me to be the guest speaker for one of their weekly events. She felt I could be an inspiration to the kids, especially when I helped design the NewsMaker software which they would be using during the program. I told her I wasn’t sure I could be inspirational, but I gladly accepted her invitation.
	So two days ago, I did that; I spoke to the kids in Coronado High School, where the summer program was held. I showed them maps and pictures of Singapore, the island country where I live. I guessed I must have also been overly zealous to do this talk, otherwise I would not have shown them photos of when I was still a kid myself, which I felt could be a little embarrassing! But I thought those photos were meaningful for my talk - at 6 years old, coming from a family that did not speak any English, I could only recite the ABCs;
and then I showed them my class photo when I was in fifth grade, a time when I was more proficient in English but still I was conversing mostly in Mandarin, my mother tongue; and then I showed them my class photo when I was in high school, a time when I could speak English much more confidently; and finally, my college graduation photo, which I thought could help add credibility for me, but I found out later that some of the kids took that to mean that they have to go to college. How inspirational-for me!
Speaking from experience, I finally shared with them the main message behind my talk – that it is so important in today’s world to be proficient in the English language; I also shared with them very memorable experiences that I’d had in Cambodia and Myanmar, where I saw students who were so eager to learn English and who were so delighted when they had a chance to use computers.
Yesterday, as I was helping out in the program, Linda came by and gave me a stack of Thank You letters the students wrote for me. I was so touched. I knew the kids had to have put in a lot of effort to write those letters, which made them all so precious to me. They are now my treasure!

I would again like to say a big thank you to everyone who has allowed me and NewsMaker to be part of this program. The students’ letters really motivated me, and I am very sure they will motivate my colleagues back home too. I am so spurred on to work even harder to help make teaching and learning even more enjoyable. I have scanned all the thank you letters that I received and I am so very proud to share them here! Enjoy your summer and I hope to see everyone again soon. Cheers, Benson Loo