Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! We love teachers for lots of reasons, but mainly because they teach kids how to write. After all, connecting with others through handwritten notes, letters and cards is what we’re all about at Pear Tree Greetings.
In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, we’re giving teachers a chance to win one of three $100 Visa gift cards to spend on classroom supplies! And here’s all you have to do:
Tell us why you think handwriting is an important skill for today’s keyboarding kids to learn.
As teacher contests go, it’s pretty easy to enter. Just add your comment below, and three winners will be randomly drawn at the end of the week. Be sure to mention your name and school in your comment so we can identify you! Contest ends Friday, May 11th.
Cathy
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Handwriting is so important now and days. Getting a letter in the mail is so much more personable. Anyone can send a fast email but to take the time to write shows that your taking the time. I make my daughter send letters to her great grandmother all the time.
As an English teacher at Hayfield High School, I believe that handwriting is an important skill for today’s students because it is a skill that is easily overlooked with all of the technology that is available to them. Writing skills in general need to be emphasized by teachers and mastered by students in order for success. I teach English classes as well as a Digital Communications course and students often overlook the importance of proper grammar and mechanics (capitalization, punctuation, etc.) and it reflects poorly on them. With handwriting mastery, students will have the skills necessary to excel in our technology-filled world.
I teach 2nd grade at St. Mary’s School, an age where beginning writing is taught as one of life’s most important skills. Balance. An important word we tend to forget. Yes, technology is rapidly growing and making many things obsolete, handwriting for instance. But you need to have balance between technology and what’s personal. Technology is great for saving time and doing things easier, but nothing is as personal as a hand-written note. Our technological world is teaching many children that it’s more common to text a person than talk to someone on the phone or in person. Nothing says “important” like a handwritten “I luv yoo. Yoo ar the bst techer in the wrld!” And with no auto-correct!
Handwriting is quickly becoming a lost art. Correct letter formation is a top priority in my kindergarten classroom. Building those fine motor skills is crucial in many everyday tasks. I make handwriting fun by writing letters. We write to authors, parents and each other.
I’m a second grade teacher and I think teaching handwriting is incredibly important! We do a letter writing unit and all letters and correspondence is handwritten. It’s stressed to students that the best way to make a good impression is through a handwritten letter or note. Letters need to be neat and legible. I try to impress upon students that neat handwriting is a lost art and that they can become masters of the written word!
Students in my eighth-grade English classes at Waseca Junior High School often hear me advocating the importance of handwriting. Not only is handwriting a skill, but it becomes the personality that we tuck into each letter that we write. It carries our style and our flourishes, and when the reader unseals the envelope and reads the letter, he or she can visualize the writer as this special message was penned. These are the letters and notes that are savored–read again and again–often tucked away to be savored once again at a later date or during later generations.
Having good handwriting is so important as it’s something you will use all of your life. This is a skill that needs to be developed early so it’s some thing they are comfortable with. Technology has taken off beyond belief but it will not always be available where as a pen and paper will be. As a 2nd grade teacher, I encourage my students to use their best handwriting on everything they do. They need to know that what they do is important and it starts with their handwriting.
I love hand written notes! It is a unique and special gift just for the reader. As a 2nd grade teacher, I see the students’ personalities shine through their writing.
I think it is very important to keep handwriting in our schools. It is great for fine motor and computers seem to be taking over and I am upset that our school system has stopped teaching cursive.
Handwriting is so important. I teach 2nd grade and I’ve noticed how much worse my students’ handwriting is getting because teachers (including me) don’t have the time needed to teach it. It makes it even harder that my students don’t have the finger reach to reach all the keys, so they are dependent on writing. We are doing more and more with writing with the new common core, but that’s writing a paragraph, not handwriting. I can’t read their handwriting to know what they are writing.
Handwriting is essential in all aspects of learning and life. In my 3rd grade class, I’ve actually done a read-aloud with a book that has poorly written handwriting. I used it to model with students how important it is to write neatly! The kids were so animated and bothered by how poorly written it was. We discussed how hard it was to understand and read if it was not done neatly. From that point on, my students pay extra close attention to how they write. They actually bring me in handwritten notes to show how much they practice! We even connected it to math and how important it is to write numbers and symbols clearly to understand the math concepts!
In a school that has little technology and no access to classroom computers, we take pride in our writing, especially in this age of technology.
I teach Kindergarten at Myatt Elementary School in El Campo, TX. We write everyday and I discuss the importance of being able to write a complete sentence and use of descriptive words. We work all year on handwriting. I want my Kinders to be able to write their mom and dad a note and their parents to be able to read and understand what they wrote. What a keepsake! I know it is so easy to type in today’s world, but by writing, children are showing more of their heart and more of how they care for others by taking the time to actually use pen and paper. It is more meaningful! 🙂
I believe that handwriting is of extreme importance. Often, our handwriting is the first impression that people have of us. Legible and attractive handwriting shows pride in one’s work. I teach second grade and teach cursive to my students even though it is not required. Research shows that students who use legible cursive to complete state writing tests score higher than those who write nearly the exact same thing in print.
Would love to win
I teach kindergarten and 4th grade. Handwriting is a life skill that is basic to our everyday life. We learn to tie our our shoes to keep them on and handwriting is like that. It is a basic skill the supports many things we do. I communicates when the power it out. It helps us keep organize. And we still have companies that still require it as we fill out forms with a pen or pencil. Not everything in this life needs to be quick and easy. Handwriting teaches us patience and control.
I teach 7th grade at Sgt. Smith Middle School.
I believe that handwriting is important as a basic physical skill in addition to all the other important reasons mentioned above. It promotes coordination, attention to detail, grace and fluidity of movement. Also, I think that it gives the writer a more visceral connection to the things they write. They are producing something that is a bit more tangible than typed words can often seem.
I teach fourth grade. I believe it is important to teach students how to write because it is a communication tool. Students need to know handwriting to write important personal notes to friends and family.
There is definitely a romance that comes from beautifully written cursive. What many teachers may overlook is the research that stresses the relevance of handwriting in helping students with keyboarding. While I have laptops in my classroom, my 4th grade students always write final copies of their writing assignments on stationary.
Handwriting is one of the most basic and meaningful forms of communication with others. It is an eloquent way to connect with those we love and care about! When we are unable to say words out loud we are able to write them down thus being able to safely share out thoughts. Handwriting allows us to share our thoughts and feelings in a world that sometimes doesn’t have time to listen. Handwritten notes can be saved and appreciated for a lifetime!
My preschool-aged students love handwriting letters. While I am sure my students type away on the keyboard at home, I teach them how to write letters by handwriting them. When I teach them how to write the letter “A”, for instance, I tell them to write this letter by saying, “Up, down, cross in the middle.” The students love the technique of making the letter A, and those handwriting techniques give more meaning to each individual letter. It challenges their brains more if they have to remember how to actually draw the shapes of the letters. Handwriting helps my students remember the letters and the words they write. In addition to the cognitive benefits of handwriting, they develop a personality to their words when they handwrite them. Every person—whether young or old—has a unique handwriting style. It is a fingerprint that separates one writer from the next.
Note: I am a preschool teacher at Small Wonders Preschool.
Handwriting is important to me when I am teaching art to my lst-8th graders.
We often have handwriting exercises in art because the children don’t have time for it in their regular classes. They love to make graffiti and to tag, but their handwriting is really quite unreadable on their art work when they try to include it. I make them paint it out in their paintings because it often ruins a painting they have spent so much time on. When they are willing to work on their handwriting styles-then and only then can they include it in their art.
PS. I forgot to say I am an art teacher at Alta E. Butler in Phoenix, AZ.
Handwriting is a fine motor skill that students need to become accomplished with. Even tho we are becoming more and more technology literate, there are still times where handwriting is a must. Handwritten notes, signatures, are two reasons we still need to teach handwriting to our children. I am an Intervention Specialist who teaches reading, language arts, and math at East Clinton Middle School in Lees Creek, Ohio.
I’ve noticed a decline in handwriting skills with my students. Many are holding the pencil or marker in very different manners. As educators we must teach our students life long skills and holding a pencil is one of those. I strongly believe in being current and up to date with teaching skills, and love technology, but one must have foundation learning and comprehension too. Handwriting is one of those basic lifelong skills that all need to be able to accomplish.
Learning to write neatly is an art form. It’s not about the technology. Sure, keyboarding skills are necessary, but handwriting skills are equally important. Handwriting shows how much a person practices writing and spatial awareness. Kids should write a handwritten letter–there’s something magical about receiving a letter or thank you note that uses ink and paper. Not all facets of education require keyboarding skills–penmanship is still integral to function in the workplace.
I teach math at Atwater High School in California.
Handwriting will always remain an important skill. Technology continues to change and advance and tweak itself but handwriting has always stayed the same. There are many instances in everyones daily life where a smart phone, tablet, or laptop are not as easily accessed as a simple pen a paper. And who doesn’t love a beautiful invitation written in calligraphy (it is wedding season).
Note: I am a preschool teacher at Head Start.
As a first grade teacher at Calera Elementary School, I feel handwriting is still very important in the real world. We use handwriting in everyday activities and might not ever think twice about it – from writing checks, list, and notes to filling out paper work at doctor offices.Handwriting should still be a focus in the early grades because it is a lifelong skill.
As an ESL teacher, I feel handwriting is still very important in today’s world. The developments in technology have changed the dependency on communicating through writing. However, ensuring a student is able to convey their thoughts through neat and precise handwriting is an important skill. People still need to be able to write letters, thank you’s, memos, filling out paperwork, etc. in daily life. You can’t always depend on technology- there’s always a chance for technology difficulties…..
As a primary teacher handwriting is a very important part of my classroom. I explain to the students that writing is a huge part of communication. People write to express ideas for others to read. They now work hard on their handwriting so their friends and family can read their work.
Penmanship and keyboarding skills are both important skills for the students that we teach today. One represents our history, and our past more clearly. Our founding fathers devised some of the most important documents that govern our country with and ink and feather. However, keyboarding is the wave our future in the digital world around us. Yet, nonetheless, our students need both to be successful in life and to develop meaningful relationships in their lives. Penmanship shows individuality, personalization, and intimacy. It reflects the uniqueness of ourselves and it brings a sense of ownership and expression to writing. After all, if we all just wrote word processing documents, would our writing look any different from the next? We are all unique and diverse beings who strive to keep up the high-speed digital world around us. And although technology has changed our lives, we as individuals and the students we teach, have not. Our writing should reflect our own individuality. Our handwriting is similar to our fingerprints, whereas no two people have exactly the same. I once heard a quote that I really apppreciated. Although I can’ take credit for creating it, I enjoy sharing it.
A man’s penmanship is an unfailing index of his character, moral and mental, and a criterion by which to judge his peculiarities of taste and sentiments.
-Philip Dormer Stanhope
Kindergarten, Southeast School, Evergreen Park, IL
I currently teach Math at St. Monica School in Dallas, TX. People may think that handwriting is not important to Math, but handwriting is super important. Having good handwriting is important to students when writing down their work and in organizing their thought processes. If a student can’t understand what they have written and mistake a “2” for a “z” or a “b” for a “6”, or can’t read their work at all, then math cannot be learned or it becomes cumbersome.
I once had a student tell me the landed a job based on a personal handwritten note. If today’s students don’t learn handwriting they could be at a disadvantage where someone of equal talents will land a job because they had better handwriting and used it.
Handwriting Handwriting is a very important and it gives personality. It shows communication, person’s skill, neat and legible. It reflects more impression to others.
Handwriting is part of our personality! It is a slice of who we are. It allows us to express ourselves for others to see now as well as in the future. As a 1st grade teacher I have the pleasure of watching the progress of children’s handwriting develop throughout the year. They all end up with their own distinct penmanship. Handwriting is very personal and can bring about so many emotions. For example, now that my parents are no longer with me, I still have thing they wrote with their own hands and I will treasure them forever. As a child my mother saved some of my schoolwork in grade school. It is absolutely precious! The children of today definitely need to learn keyboarding skills, but nothing can take the place of your own personal handwriting!
Neat handwriting is a skill that will help a child stand out on-the-job as an adult.
A. Pry
Cranberry Township
thepryfamily@gmail.com
Handwriting is still an important skill for students to learn. There are many things kids will need to be able to do without a keyboard-mainly, signing their signature on a check! They should learn how to hand write thank you notes or letters to family or friends. My students have had lots of practice over the years with writing thank you notes to people. They should take pride in doing a neat job and knowing others can read and enjoy what they have written.
oops! I teach Kindergarten at Cherryville Elementary in Cherryville, NC
Thank you to all the teachers that submitted an entry for our Teacher Appreciation Contest during Teacher Appreciation Week. We were pleased to see how much each of you values the importance of teaching handwriting, at a time when kids spend so much time typing, tapping and texting. Our three winners are: Jessica, a preschool teacher from North Dakota, Christina, a 7th & 8th grade math teacher from Texas and Taylor, a 3rd grade teacher from Massachusetts. Congratulations and thank you again for entering!