Writing a Personal Letter to Students to Get Connected with Them

There is no doubt that online learning bears a decrease in students' motivation and engagement. It's very obvious in the way students contribute to the discussions in class which seems to be less active than that of the regular classroom learning. Even when it comes to following the online meeting rules, they seem to be reluctant. Though it's already clearly stated since the beginning of the new academic year, some students still do not follow the rules, e.g. turning off the camera and unmuting the mic. Additionally, when it comes to submitting tasks/projects, only a few of them do it in a timely manner. The others do it late, the rest of them need even repeated reminders and motivation to do it. 

How to deal with this is still debatable though.Some parents want that teachers understand the drawbacks and are not supposed to be pushy and should understand. On the other hand, some other parents wish that no matter the condition is, students should be pushed and reminded of their responsibilities. Considering this contrast, teachers are put in a position that should be able to respond to their 'requests' without offending each party. Therefore, teachers have sought the core problem and found out that it is possibly the lack of motivation. 

Motivation can come from inside or outside. Both are quite interrelated. When the one coming from one's inside self no longer 'exists' or is not yet shaped or easily distracted, then the other type is needed. There is a lot of ways to motivate students, such us reading stories, playing games, or sending encouraging messages. Some research has proved that such ways effective to increase students' motivation in learning which in turns, engage them more deeply. 

Me myself, as a teacher have applied the first two ways in class, it was successful. Therefore, I think I will keep doing that. However, to enter Term 2, me and my peers are trying to send messages through a letter. Some international/national+plus schools have done this and found out that students are very excited to get those messages. In turns, their learning motivation is enhanced which is proven by their more active participation in the online meetings and submitting work. 

Referring to the experience of those schools, we want to find out if such a way can get us connected with our students more closely and increase their learning motivation. Therefore, all homeroom teachers in the school I'm working for are going to send a letter to each student. Most of us choose to type in the computer, but I choose to write on a piece of origami paper. I do it because I have only 13 students and using handwriting, in my opinion, will give a deep personal touch to it. Then I hope that my students will feel how much I care about them and I love them. We'll send the letter along with a pack of students' learning materials/tools/worksheets and some food through a drive-thru. I can't wait to send them the letter and see how they will react to it. Hopefully, by then, they will feel the warmth in the letter and get more motivated to learn no matter what is happening. In general, I want to keep getting connected with them despite the online learning drawbacks.