As an educator, I am always evaluating my resources and the teaching and learning process.  In terms of this unit, there were various resources that I used to aid my students as well as to guide me.  Here is a reflection of three of those teaching resources.

1.  Audio/Visual:  "The Post Office Project"

    This is a video created by a teacher as she taught her first grade class how to run a post office.  The video included the process that the students underwent as well as extensive clips of how the students actually ran a post office for the entire school from the basement of their school  building.  The students in my class learned a lot from this video.  They had critical questions and concerns of how such a project can be accomplished.  The students in my class also asked questions incorporating their knowledge of letter writing and the mail process.  This was also a diverse way of "showing" the students how mail is delivered and handled.  My class was so excited that they wanted to start such a service in their own school.  Although I was not there long enough to begin this project, we did do a mini version of mail delivery in just our class through the activity center.  In the future, I would like to have the opportunity to try such a project.

2.  Literature:  Here Comes the Mail  by Gloria Skurzynski

    I read this book aloud to the whole class.  One of the students had taken it out from the school library and offered it to me to read.  After reading the book myself, I believed that the students would enjoy it as well.  The book explains how a letter is delivered from the time that a little girl decides to write to her friend in another to state to how the mail is sorted and then delivered.  Pictures and words document the different workers that handle that one letter and what happens to that letter through different channels of the mail process.  The students enjoyed seeing the pictures and learning about the different codes on letters.  They also learned about why it is so important to address the letter correctly.  At times, the book was a little too technical and required me to put concepts in "layman's" terms for the students.  Overall, I would definitely encourage teachers to use this book.

3.  Internet:  Arthur:  Letter Writer Helper

    This site was extremely helpful in offering lesson suggestions and sample stationery.  My idea to write to the author Beverly Cleary was inspired by this site.  I also printed out Bear Stationery that aided the students in writing the letters in proper form from this resource.  There were other stationery and ideas for teachers to peruse.  Of course the resources provided at this site need to be modified to meet the needs of students in diverse classrooms.  Letter Writer Helper is a good resource for teachers to do research prior to beginning their letter writing unit.