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Students Make Pals Across Bay

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By LENORA LAKE

llake@tampatrib.com

Published: January 21, 2009

NORTH TAMPA - Herbert Washington thinks he will like his pen pal when he meets him next week.

They have a lot in common, said Washington, 11, a fifth-grader at Belle Witter Elementary who has been corresponding for several months with a fifth-grader at Clearwater's High Point Elementary.

"He seems like a very outgoing person, and we will get along great because I'm outgoing myself," Washington said.

He said from his pen-pal letters, he learned that the other student likes dancing, team sports and is African-American like himself.

Students in Elouise Cross's fifth-grade language arts class at Witter are among eight classes, totaling 250 students, in the Tampa Bay area participating in a writing program offered by the National Football League.

The curriculum program, One World: Connecting Communities, Cultures and Classrooms, is being used in conjunction with Super Bowl XLIII, to be played in Tampa on Feb. 1.

The students from Witter and High Point, as well as students in six other schools, will meet for activities at a One World Tampa Bay Huddle on Monday at Brooks-DeBartolo Collegiate High School in north Tampa. Other participating elementaries are Sacred Heart Academy in Tampa; Oneco and Orange Ridge in Manatee County; Brooksville in Hernando; Richey in Pasco; and Crystal Lake in Polk.

Cross said she was asked to participate in the program and began by giving her fellow teachers at High Point a list of her Witter students. The High Point teacher matched the students and the High Point children mailed letters to the Witter students. Each class has written several times and the pen-pals exchanged holiday cards.

Cross said she has been pleased with the progress of the program, saying it has encouraged the students to focus on what they are saying and their spelling.

"They won't do rough drafts if I tell them just do some writing" but will with the letters because they don't want to be embarrassed by their peers, Cross said.

The lesson plans, provided by the NFL, also include understanding one's own identity, building communities, respecting cultures and avoiding stereotyping.

"We learned a lot about how we can be different and how we can still have a lot of things in common," Cross said.

Shawn Muriel, 10, said he has learned his pen pal likes baseball and is looking forward to meeting him too.

Tribune correspondent Lenora Lake can be reached at (813) 865-4851.

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