I think this ties directly into the topics that each student chose to address. It is clear in the three letters that stood out to me each student had an interest in the topic at hand. In one of the letters, Ellen discusses poverty and includes her first hand account when she was on vacation with her family in Italy. She is able to connect her personal experience to a topic that she feels strongly about and in turn helps her find her voice.

I agree that we must continue to support and be creative to allow students to discover their voice and find issues that they feel passionate about. It is also important that they feel they are being heard.

Ellen in her letter about poverty cites three specific places where she found her opening quote and other statistics mentioned throughout the letter. One of the statistics she uses is "families of four usually survive on about $63 per day. People that face extreme poverty, however, have less than $1.25 to spend everyday." I thought this was a good use and helped put poverty into perspective in comparison to not only the average family, but also to the reader.

Ellen does a nice job of describing her experience on a family vacation in Italy. She describes how she saw the same elderly man selling roses on the way back to their hotel. She explains that she observed many people walking by, but no one would buy a rose from the elderly man. She sacrificed her gelato that night and bought a rose from the elderly man that she still has today so she has a reminder of her experience.

I like that the tags were student generated. Personally, when given a list to choose a tag from sometimes I don't feel the tag is listed that is most appropriate. I enjoy that students were able to create their own tags to summarize the main issue of their letter.

For example, Samuel H. chose a "classroom" tag that peaked my interest. I was curious to explore what issues in the classroom he believed should be addressed. This is one of the aspects that stood out to me.

I think this is critical in our world today. It is important to have an inclusive classroom and have our youth (and ideally everyone) understand that not everyone is going to be exactly the same and that is okay. Our differences make us stronger and allow for learning opportunities.

I think this is important for the younger generations to feel they have a chance for their voice to be heard about what is most important to them. As the world changes, I believe different generations have different priorities and topics that they feel are most important. While some of the interests may be similar, I believe the approaches and potential solutions will vary from person to person.

One of the letters that stood out to me included the idea of living in a free country as well. His letter focused on the War on Drugs and the large prison population that we have in the United States. He specifically mentions that "hundreds of thousands" are in prison who shouldn't be. While Luis is discussing the issue of police brutality, I think the two letters have a connection. Samuel (the author of the letter that stood out to me) concludes his letter by stating this issue "could determine whether this country is truly free or not."

I think this is so important these days. Between the skewed realities that are posted on social media (example: everyone is happy all the time and has no bad days) and the changing values of our society, I think this is really important for our youth.

I am interested to learn more about how this is defined.

I am excited about this! I think creativity and innovation is key to all learning environments. Thinking outside the box can lead to a greater impact.