My Graduation Gift To Malaysia

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I bought some gorgeous black & white postcards of landmarks in New York City!
I'd love to send them to your students!
   
Earlier this week, I graduated with a Master of Arts in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Teachers College of Columbia University. My study program was an unforgettable experience made possible by the goodwill & love bestowed upon me by my fellow countrymen & friends abroad. I would like to pay it forward by sending a little gift to as many schools as I can in Malaysia. So, continue reading to find out how you can have a postcard sent from New York City in the USA to the students at your school!

When I was teaching at the jungle school, I witnessed the excitement, joy and wonder that my students felt when they received letters from their pen-pals. On social media, I have also noticed plenty of teachers bugging their friends abroad to send postcards to their students. Intuitively, we know that there is some unspoken magic about receiving something beautiful in the mail. I concede that, in the information age, receiving a postcard from New York might not be something special to students from privileged backgrounds. Nonetheless, for a vast majority of Malaysian students, being able to hold a handwritten postcard which has traveled halfway across the globe to arrive in their hands, is mind-blowing &, at least, intriguing. How many people in Malaysia can say that they've received mail from the USA?

My hope is that this gift will plant seeds in the hearts of your students & paint a vision in their minds of a desire to visit New York City or, even better, graduate from the same institution as I have. I hope that it will spark dialogue & get hearts pumping. I hope that it will be of a little help to you in your efforts to make English ever more meaningful in the lives of your beloved students & inspire them to strive ever harder for academic excellence.

This is what you have to do:
  1. You MUST be a teacher at the school you want to send a postcard to. Only a teacher at the receiving school can perform follow up activities & spread the message of goodwill intended by the gift. Your school must be a government school (primary/secondary) or vocational college. The postcard can be addressed to the students at your school in general, the students at a grade level, or those in a specific class.
  2. In the comments section of this post, see if another teacher at your school has beaten you to the punch. There can only be ONE postcard sent to each school, on a first come first served basis.
  3. In the comments section of this post, you must state your NAME + SCHOOL MAILING ADDRESS (the postcard will be mailed to you at your school) + YOUR REASON FOR TAKING PART (this will help me embellish the contents of the postcard).
  4. When you have received the postcard, take a picture of what you've done with it & send me an update! If you decide to post something on social media, tag me (@Jarodyjk at Facebook, Twitter & Instagram)

Because this gift will cost me quite a bit (postcard $1 + postage $1.15), I can only do a maximum of 120 postcards. So, the first 120 teachers from 120 schools will be the ones who will get the postcards in their mail in 1-2 months time! Spread the word!

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NOTICE (4 June): More than 120 teachers have signed up & a lot of those who registered after #120 were from rural schools. Therefore, I've decided to ikat perut & send another 30 postcards. Malaysian students are worth it & I want to sow into their futures. I believe that they will be able to change Malaysia for the better. In total, I'll be sending 150 postcards & that's as much as I can afford (sorry to those who came after #150)!

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