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Everything needed for any school to start their own Family and School Time Capsule Project is available below, and on the first three posts at www.Dallasisd.us.
By focusing students and their families on the life-long journey exploring their roots and goals in every grade, Pre-K through 12th, the achievement of every student, with actively involved families, will soar. The Family and School Time Capsule Project involves every parent, grandparent, and/or other relative for each child in writing an annual letter to their student about their dreams and goals for the student. In each letter they also include a family story from the writer’s own roots.
The student immediately reads each letter when received, or has it read to them by each letter writer starting in Pre-K. The child also should have a chance to speak with the writer about the letter and the information shared. All letters are placed inside one self-addressed envelope prepared by the parent for the child, with the current date on the envelope.
This self-addressed envelope eventually goes to the school, but a parent is always free to send only copies of the original letters to the school. They can always keep these valuable original letters in safe keeping in their homes.
A class day is scheduled to bring the self-addressed envelopes to school. They are collected by the grade’s Time Capsule Postmaster Volunteer and stored in the School Time Capsule Vault until the next year. The 700-pound Time Capsule Vault is in a high traffic area visible to the most students possible every day, usually in the school lobby. The more often students can see the School Time Capsule Vault, and think of the letters inside, the more goal focused they become, better grounded in their family roots.
Letters are returned to students by the Postmaster Volunteer just before the next year’s letter writing starts. The year-old letters are all read again to or by the student, preparing for another cycle of letter writing. The year-old envelope holding the old letters goes home to be safely stored while new letters are written to go back into the vault in a new self-addressed and dated envelope. This annual letter writing and reading process continues through the second grade.
Starting in the 3rd grade there are 3 changes:
1) Instead of the school asking for the letters to be written to students, students themselves begin writing annual letters to each parent, grandparent, or other close relative, asking for a letter back about their new dreams for them and with another family history story.
2) Students prepare their own self-addressed envelope in a class period dedicated to the Time Capsule Project. The envelope, with the current date on the envelope, holds all letters received that year.
3) Students then write a letter to themselves with their own thoughts about the letters received, and their own dreams for their own future. This letter also goes into the self-addressed envelope. The envelope is sealed and stored in the school’s Time Capsule Vault by the Postmaster volunteer.
This new cycle is repeated annually through 12th grade and graduation. The year-old envelopes are always returned to students by the grade’s Postmaster Volunteer to be re-read and taken home just before the next year’s letter writing process starts.
In the 12th grade the dreams everyone writes about change to be dreams for the student 10-years into their future. These 12th grade envelopes remain in the school’s Time Capsule Vault until the first 10-year high school class reunion. Imagine how the turnout for the first 10-year high school reunion will grow!
With roots and goals constantly being explored every year in such letter writing, students become more focused and motivated, more bonded with parents, grandparents, and involved relatives, more self-confident, and more well-behaved. School achievement increases as students focus more actively on their own life goals. Unplanned pregnancies, fighting, and the attraction of gangs all decrease!
Teachers enjoy teaching again! Future-focused students grounded in their family roots are very different students. Counseling issues are more easily identified. Mental health improves!
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Until this web site is more complete, details about running this project can be found in the second posting in the blog at www.dallasisd.us.
The record of Family & School Time Capsule Project achievements since 2005 is documented in the third document at www.dallasisd.us. It involves a recording of School Effectiveness Indices (SEI) scores for all 32 non-magnet Dallas ISD middle schools from 2006 through 2023. The 6 middle schools who wrote letters in this project are singled out for comparison of the pattern of their improved SEI scores with the non-project schools. That comparison is found in the third document posted at www.dallasisd.us.
Bill Betzen, LMSW (Emeritus), Retired Teacher, Family & School Time Capsule Postmaster Volunteer, bbetzen@aol.com, or text to 214-957-9739, Dallas, Texas