Announcer (00:01): Highlighting the amazing stories from inside the North Clackamas school district. This is the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, hosted by longtime principal and current community relations director, Curtis Long

Curtis Long (00:17): Get out your crumpled shopping list because as we begin this week's podcast, we're actually cruising past the corn chips flowing right past the frozen food freezer door. We're even perusing past the pet treats as we push a squeaky cart toward a brand new decoration proudly displayed on the back wall of the Clackamas Trader Joe's. And if you're familiar with the layout of this gleeful grocery store on Southeast 82nd Avenue, you can't miss this frame letter hanging right next to the store's Signature Golden Bell. Why did this letter ring so true to Trader Joe's crew members? What does it say? And most importantly, who wrote it? The answer, Mount Scott Elementary, third grader, Xander Sievers.

Xander Sievers (00:59): Dear Trader Joe's, I think that your fabulous grocery store should have a toy aisle if you're...

Curtis Long (01:04): But before we hear the rest of Xander's letter and why it recently prompted three Trader Joe's crew members to stop by Xander's classroom with gifts for him and all his classmates. How

Trader Joe's Crew (01:13): You guys doing?

Curtis Long (01:14): Let's rewind to a few weeks ago when Mount Scott, third grade teacher, Liz Maxwell, began teaching her eager students about the power of persuasive writing.

Liz Maxwell (01:25): So students are writing persuasive letters to an audience of their choice and they are trying to convince their reader to act or to do something.

Curtis Long (01:36): Today on the Proud To Be NCSD podcast, we'll learn more about how thanks to some focused professional development, North Clackamas teachers are becoming more skilled and more self-confident in teaching writing skills to all elementary students from kindergarten to fifth grade,

Liz Maxwell (01:50): And then evening opportunities where we can get together and learn from experts. So it's a really supportive way to help teachers roll out this new way of teaching writing.

Curtis Long (02:00): We'll also meet several prolific persuasive writers from Mount Scott, including Xander himself, who are all learning the positive changes you can make in the world around you when you put the power of persuasion on paper.

Xander Sievers (02:12): So they wrote back and they came to my classroom and they gave me, um, a goodie bag of stuff.

Curtis Long (02:17): And what's it like to know your writing made such an impact on crew members from a local grocery store that they couldn't wait to come visit you at school?

Brian Luchenbill (02:25): I've been looking forward to this all week and knew the amount of employees that Trader Joe's that wanted to join us was pretty long. We would've needed a school bus to bring everybody from the store.

Curtis Long (02:31): So find a seat and join us for this terrific tale about the persuasive pros that wowed the staff at Trader Joe's. And joining us on The Proud To Be NCSD podcast is the one and only the local legend of the Clackamas Trader Joe's. And he did it all by writing a persuasive letter to the local grocery store. It's Mount Scott third grader, Xander Siever. Xander, first off, thanks for joining us today. How is life in third grade and Mrs. Maxwell's class at Mount Scott?

Xander Sievers (02:59): It's cool.

Curtis Long (03:00): What's so cool about it right now?

Xander Sievers (03:02): Ms. Maxwell's a really good teacher and uh, we do some fun stuff.

Curtis Long (03:06): Yeah, you guys are always doing fun stuff in third grade. What's your favorite thing about going to Mount Scott?

Xander Sievers (03:10): I like to like go to PE 'cause it's fun when we play like fun games.

Curtis Long (03:14): Okay. A lot of people want to hear that letter, but before we get to that, tell us, how this letter came about. What was Mrs. Maxwell teaching you and all of your classmates about

Xander Sievers (03:22): How to write a persuasive letter and get people to act.

Curtis Long (03:25): And what did you think when you first heard that? Did you understand what she was talking about? Yeah. So did you think of Trader Joe's right off the top or did you have other ideas?

Xander Sievers (03:34): I had some other ideas, but this is my first letter.

Curtis Long (03:37): Alright. The moment we've all been waiting for Xander, let's hear that letter that you wrote to the local Trader Joe's that is now hanging on display at the grocery store.

Xander Sievers (03:45): Dear Trader Joe's, I think that your fabulous grocery store should have a toy aisle. If your store had a toy aisle, it would make it even more fun to come and shop here with my mom. Also, I would love to buy some cool toys with my savings. I think a good area to sell your toys would be in the back where you have the samples in case your store needs that area for samples. You can do a thing where you only sell toys on Friday or only have samples on Friday. I am eight years old, so I would not buy baby toys. Thank you for taking your time to read my letter. PS Trader Joe's is my favorite grocery store and I love to find Raja. Sincerely, Xander.

Curtis Long (04:24): Oh my goodness, that is so well written. How long did it take you to write that letter?

Xander Sievers (04:28): Probably like two days.

Curtis Long (04:29): Two days. Did you go through some different drafts that Mrs. Maxwell help you with it?

Xander Sievers (04:33): No, this is my first the like final copy and I only did one,

Curtis Long (04:36): Just one. You didn't have to go through different drafts or didn't have to edit it much. You're a very talented writer. Now, after you sent that letter off, what did you think would happen? Did you think you'd hear back from Trader Joe's?

Xander Sievers (04:46): Uh, not really. <laugh>,

Curtis Long (04:48): Not really. Not a lot of confidence there. But tell us what actually did happen.

Xander Sievers (04:53): Uh, so they wrote back and they came to my classroom and they gave me, um, a goodie bag of stuff and, but they said they couldn't put a toy aisle in 'cause their specialty was groceries

Curtis Long (05:04): <laugh>. Now let's listen in on that visit from three Trader Joe's crew members who came to visit Xander's classroom on a recent morning.

Trader Joe's Crew (05:11): Hello? Hi friends. Oh my goodness. Hello. Oh, hi. Good morning everyone. Hi guys. How you guys doing? Come in. We have um, space up front for you if you'd like. Sure. There we go. Okay. We have Sanders's letter on display here. Thank you Sanders Sander, come on. May I shake your hand? Thank you for Your wonderful letter. Uh, we have a bag for you With the Trader Joe's Name tag. That's for you. We've got treats for everybody. We've got a bag for you. This is Maxwell. So we got this wonderful letter in the mail about a week, two weeks ago. Yeah. And it put a smile on everyone's face. So we, we came to thank you for the wonderful letter that you wrote to us. It was truly exciting. Now we do have a little bit of bad news, which I'm gonna hand over to Brian. I

Brian Luchenbill (06:20): I deliver the bad news

Brian Luchenbill (06:23): So I tried to make it happen, but we're not gonna get a toy aisle and Trader Joe's anytime soon. But it was a great idea. It's A good idea. We'll keep it on the list. But for now we're gonna fill you up with treats.

Trader Joe's Crew (06:33): <laugh>. Xander, can I ask why'd you pick Trader Joe's to be the place to send your letter?

Xander Sievers (06:40): Uh, because one time my mom said um, they gave me an idea for a to

Trader Joe's Crew (06:47): And you go to Trader Joe's a lot with your family, don't you?

Brain Luchenbill (06:50): So you can wear your name tag when you come next time. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,

Trader Joe's Crew (06:53): What's your favorite thing at Trader Joe's?

Xander Sievers (06:56): Probably the baguettes.

Trader Joe's Crew (06:58): Baguettes. Yes those are Good. I love you a good baguette. <laugh>.

Trader Joe's Crew (07:02): Now I heard you like finding Raja at the store, right? Well in the bag here we have a classroom Raja for You. So Mrs. Maxwell, you get to have that and hide that around the the Classroom.

Liz Maxwell (07:14): I get to hide Raja every day you guys. I got it. Oh, how exciting. Thank you.

Brian Luchenbill (07:20): Has anybody else ever been to Trader Joe's and found Raja before?

Trader Joe's Crew (07:23): Nice.

Xander Sievers (07:24): You could hide it and um, whoever fights it could put it on their desk for the day.

Liz Maxwell (07:31): That's a good idea.

Trader Joe's Crew (07:33): Raja should watch you work. Love it. That's smart. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions about Trader Joe's? Yeah.

Xander Sievers (07:41): Um, if you couldn't make the toy, I'll come. Is it because expenses or you don't have space for it?

Trader Joe's Crew (07:48): Well, it's mostly because what we do best is groceries and toys isn't really our business, although it's a good business and it's a good idea. We're mostly about groceries. So

Brian Luchenbill (08:00): There's people that work for Trader Joe's that travel all over the world that try to find interesting products out there and then they bring them back to the store so we can carry 'em.

Trader Joe's Crew (08:07): So anybody else with questions?

Liz Maxwell (08:09): I was wondering what about Sander's letter stood out to you? I don't know if maybe you don't get a lot of letters from kids, so I don't know.

Brian Luchenbill (08:17): We do not. Okay. We do not. What stood out for us was the enthusiasm for the store, finding Raja and everything about the letter just said that this is a very, uh, interesting kid that we really wanted to come down to meet <laugh> because yeah, we don't get letters like that a lot. Good. And it felt very special to be included in something like that.

Trader Joe's Crew (08:34): So it's framed on the wall at the store for lots of people to read Yes. We have a picture of it here. Oh, very nice. It's next to your bell. What's the bell for?

Brian Luchenbill (08:42): So we use bells to communicate instead of an intercom system. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So if we ring a lot of bells it's 'cause someone found Raja in the store. But some of the other bells are if you need a manager or if you need someone to go get you a product. 'cause a customer couldn't find it. So we Use lots of different bells throughout the store to to communicate. I like ringing the bell. <laugh>

Trader Joe's Crew (09:02): Our cast thought it was really special that you framed it and put it up on the wall. They were like it's in a real frame. So that was the first thing we thought of when we saw the letter. It was that we wanted to share this with everybody because it made our day. We wanted to help have it help make other people's days as well. Oh Thank you. Again, we're such a like community based kind of store and stuff like that. So just like it's really nice that like again we get to help the community but then they actually appreciate it too. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So it's always nice to just kind get that warm fuzzy feeling. Yeah and especially from a kid like Xander and stuff like that, it's like oh we're hitting all the demographics too. <laugh>.

Trader Joe's Crew (09:38): I know Xander's family's been in to see the letter in person. They took those photos for us. But we told all of you, if you're at Trader Joe's make sure you go find Xander's letter and you can tell 'em. We know that kid. Don't forget to find Raja too while you're There. And it sounds like you guys all wrote letters to different businesses. Yeah. Was that fun to do?

Liz Maxwell (09:56): It wasn't all businesses. What was our whole point of this unit?

Xander Sievers (10:00): To persuade people to do something?

Trader Joe's Crew (10:03): Ah, persuasive letter. Yep. Well It definitely did the job

Liz Maxwell (10:07): So we were trying to persuade people whether it was our parents to buy us a kitchen or our, we had some friends asking relatives to move to Oregon. We had some students write to businesses to persuade them to do different things. But their point was to try and get people to act and to do something nice that they cared about. Anyone wanna share your persuasive letter? Who you wrote to?

Student (10:31): Um, I was writing to Taylor Swift if she could come to our school.

Trader Joe's Crew (10:35): To who? Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift. That's a good one. She's actually next after us. I'm so Sorry. Scratch it. Scratch it.

Student (10:48): So I was writing to, I was writing a letter to my parents to gimme a dog and they gave me a stuffed animal. <laugh> <laugh>.

Trader Joe's Crew (10:57): It's a start dog, Right? Was it a stuffed dog though? Yeah. Baby steps. Baby steps. Steps baby. They Run the Loophole. Yep.

Student (11:08): I was riding to um, man Gala International Market.

Trader Joe's Crew (11:12): And you wanted them to have Samples? Yeah, well Trader Joe's got that so always I'll give you some samples. That's for sure.

Liz Maxwell (11:23): Mohammad was trying to encourage more samples of Arabic food. Right. Oh very cool. So that people would be exposed to different

Trader Joe's Crew (11:29): That's a good idea. That's a very good idea.

Liz Maxwell (11:31): Annabelle,

Student (11:32): I wrote To two different businesses. The first one I wrote to was to Starbucks bring back to Raspberry Steamer. And the second one was cakes that they should have would make chocolate chip milk cake.

Trader Joe's Crew (11:44): Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> Fun cakes. You guys are making it hungry. <laugh>.

Liz Maxwell (11:49): Charlie D?

Student (11:50): I wrote to best cafe but how they should have more choices for the kids Kids. Menu. Menu. Kids menu.

Curtis Long (11:55): Okay. Xander, now that we've heard that, what was the best part about that visit for you? What'd you like most?

Xander Sievers (12:00): I liked that I got some stuff and also all my classmates were thanking me because they got a little goodie bag too.

Curtis Long (12:06): Yeah. All the classmates got a little goodie bag. You got an official Trader Joe's name tag, right? Have you been sporting that?

Xander Sievers (12:11): Yeah.

Curtis Long (12:13): You'll have to wear that. And have you been to the store since? 'cause I know you hadn't been there when they came and visited. Have you been there now and seen your letter up on display?

Xander Sievers (12:20): I went yesterday.

Curtis Long (12:21): And how's that make you feel when your letter is up on display?

Xander Sievers (12:24): Like noticed

Curtis Long (12:26): Did your parents point it out? Did they say, hey, here's the kid who wrote that? Yes, they did. And joining us right now are the proud parents of our new local celebrity in the world of Trader Joe's dad, Clayton and mom, Alex Sievers, who are also invited to their son's classroom For this special visit from Trader Joe's, did Xander come home and did he talk a lot about the letter that he wrote?

Alex Sievers (12:45): He did. He talked about it, but we hadn't seen it. So I, um, emailed Ms. Maxwell and she didn't have a copy either because it got mailed. So I saw it for the first time last week just shopping and asking the cashier like, have you heard about this kid that wrote a letter? And she's like, yeah, it's right there. <laugh>.

Curtis Long (13:02): So the first time you saw the letter it was framed up on the wall at Trader Joe's?

Clayton Sievers (13:05): Yeah. I was just like, what is this?

Alex Sievers (13:07): What's going on here? Way

Clayton Sievers (13:08): Down. This is awesome.

Curtis Long (13:09): So Xander didn't know either. Did you come home and tell Xander or was Xander with you?

Alex Sievers (13:13): He was not with me. He was really upset that I saw it without him. So we still need to take him down to the grocery store to see it on the wall. He's seen it in pictures.

Curtis Long (13:22): Now I overheard you say that you always drag Xander with you to grocery shop. Yeah. But he might be a little more excited about doing that now.

Alex Sievers (13:28): I think so. Yes. I think so. For sure. Hundred. He'll be really excited to see the letter on the wall himself.

Curtis Long (13:34): Absolutely. How rewarding was it for you to come into school today and see the excitement on your son's face and the attention that he's getting for a skill that he's developed?

Alex Sievers (13:42): It's great. It's like, it's a really proud parent moment. <laugh>. Yes,

Clayton Sievers (13:47): Very much so. These are the things that you don't hear about the things they were, I mean we ask him every day, how's your day going? What do you work on? Oh, we're just doing letters. We're doing this and next thing you know, we're here doing this. And it's just, it's very proud, very proud of him.

Curtis Long (13:58): And I, I heard, uh, I think it was grandpa say to save some of those goodies. Are you guys, hey you guys have a trip planned that. 'cause he got a big batch of goodies. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.

Alex Sievers (14:05): Yeah. We're gonna go to the beach this weekend. Yeah. Manzanita. Yeah, <laugh> going to the beach. And that's car snacks for sure.

Curtis Long (14:11): Is writing something that Xander has always been interested in or has this happened in third grade?

Clayton Sievers (14:16): I think it's third grade.

Alex Sievers (14:16): Yeah. I think it's Mrs. Maxwell specifically. She's a really great teacher. She's really brought out the best in him this year. I don't think writing was his strong suit. Um, he's still working on his penmanship, but she's doing a really wonderful job, uh, bringing the best in him.

Curtis Long (14:30): Do you have any ideas what Xander might tackle next? Who's gonna get his next letter?

Alex Sievers (14:34): Well, we've gotten about four of them.

Curtis Long (14:36): Oh, he is writing a parent now. I get it.

Alex Sievers (14:39): Okay. A Guinea pig, A play date. A cat. A cat. So we've fulfilled two of those. We let him have the nerve and a play date. Yeah, I think the pets is where it <laugh>.

Curtis Long (14:48): Oh, so he's really learning the art of of persuasion

Alex Sievers (14:51): On paper. Correct. And even his, uh, classmates are writing us letters, <laugh>.

Curtis Long (14:54): Oh, so you're getting letters from classmates in Mrs. Maxwell's class?

Alex Sievers (14:57): Yes. They're very, uh, good writers nowadays. Oh, they're so great. Yeah. Anything else you'd like to add we didn't talk about? No, I think the school's doing a really wonderful job. We're really impressed. Oh, excited. Yeah. It's, it's been fantastic. Excited to see what what's next <laugh>

Curtis Long (15:13): And we're excited for you to hear what's next as we continue the story of Xander and his classmates who are learning the power of persuasion when you put your pencil to paper. So far we've heard Trader Joe's remarkable response to Xander's persuasive letter. What was the store captain thinking when it arrived in the store's mailbox?

Brian Luchenbill (15:31): When I read it, it was just, uh, brought a lot of joy to me and I immediately called some people over. We read it together. Uh, Vivian and I shared a moment of like, just kind of the excitement of it and they were like, we should do something for Xander

Curtis Long (15:40): And we'll sit down with Mrs. Maxwell herself, A proud teacher who admits her voice kind of cracked when her students realized the true power of using theirs.

Liz Maxwell (15:50): One little girl said it felt like I could change the world. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Um, so these students learned that their words meant something important and that their voices were valuable,

Curtis Long (16:00): More valuable lessons from a third grade classroom. Next, right after this.

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Curtis Long (16:59): And the staff at Trader Joe's, including Clackamas store Captain Brian Luchenbill couldn't wait to show Xander and his classmates what's next when they received the eight year old's letter in the mail. So were you the one who received the letter initially?

Brian Luchenbill (17:11): I actually was the one who opened the letter. So I checked the mailbox a few times a week. Usually it's just junk mail and magazines and people trying to sell us things. So when I saw it was from Mount Scott, I was like, I wonder what this is. So went back to open the letter, um, and saw it was a handwritten letter, which was exciting. And then when I saw, when I read it, it was just, uh, brought a lot of joy to me and I immediately called some people over. We read it together. Uh, Vivian and I shared a moment of like, just kind of the excitement of it and they were like, we should do something for Xander. And that's where it kind of snowballed from there.

Curtis Long (17:37): So what was your reaction when you, when you read what he was asking for?

Brian Luchenbill (17:40): Well, the toy aisle is a good idea. I knew it probably wouldn't work within the parameters of what we do, but I thought we could bring him some joy in a different way by maybe showing up to the school, school, getting him a name tag, um, and just having a nice visit with him in the class.

Curtis Long (17:52): How fun was it for you this morning?

Brian Luchenbill (17:54): It was great. I'm looking forward to this all week and the amount of uh, employees at Trader Joe's that wanted to join us was pretty long. We would've needed a school bus to bring everybody from the store. We're actually doing a customer appreciation day today, so there's a lot of enthusiasm already at the store. Uh, but Vivian and Javi were the two that got, uh, lucky enough to get to join me to get to come do this.

Curtis Long (18:10): And get to come to Mount Scott today and we hear his letter is now framed and part of the store.

Brian Luchenbill (18:16): It is, yeah. It's hung up right by the big bell at the store for lots of, uh, employees and customers to read.

Curtis Long (18:20): What do you think this says about students? I mean, he's a third grade student who wanted to have his voice heard. What do you think that says about uh, what our teachers are doing in school and what our kids are able to do?

Brian Luchenbill (18:29): What's exciting to see the impact we can have on the community and the community can have on us And just to see, you know, for Mrs. Maxwell, to have students that are enthusiastic about reaching out to local businesses and trying to persuade us to do something, albeit something we can't do, um, is really great to see from, from kids his age and from, you know, this class in general.

Curtis Long (18:46): One of those students is 8-year-old Evolett Chavez who thought a little more nationally when writing her persuasive letter. She wrote to a popular recording artist and celebrity hoping for a special concert in the Mount Scott gym. Well, Xander wasn't the only one who got a special response. We have some more kids from Mrs. Maxwell's class. This is Evolett and Evolett, tell us about who you wrote to.

Evolett Chavez (19:12): I wrote to trombone shorty to see if he got a concert in our class or in happy valley.

Curtis Long (19:21): So trombone shorty is a musician that you're a big fan of and you wrote to see if he would come do a concert. You wrote your letter. Alright, let's hear that letter.

Evolett Chavez (19:29): You are trombone shorty. I really think you should come to put one and have a concert at Heavy Valley Park because the community would be happy. But please don't make it too expensive because not many people can come. They would be sad because they wouldn't come. I learned about you and I really like your music. Thanks for taking your time to read this weather. Sincerely ever wedding. PS I have an idea if you can come to our school for your concert, our whole school would be happy because our music teacher taught us about you.

Curtis Long (20:10): Wow. So you learned about trombone shorty in music class. Now I hear you were maybe the first person to get a response in the classroom. What was that like?

Evolett Chavez (20:19): It was shocking 'cause I didn't know he actually respond <laugh>. I thought it was gonna come like a couple days later, <laugh>.

Curtis Long (20:26): And did it come pretty quickly? His response came back. And what did trombone shorty say now? I heard you heard from his management maybe. What did they say?

Evolett Chavez (20:33): He said thank you. He would tell his manager about it.

Curtis Long (20:36): Oh, so there's still a chance maybe trombone shorty will come to Mount Scott Elementary and perform. Are you holding out hope for that? How does it make you feel that your letter got a response like that so quickly?

Evolett Chavez (20:46): I don't know. It's just like I got shocked. <laugh> <laugh>. I'm like, how can I get, I thought I was like almost the first person to get a little answer from a person that I know.

Curtis Long (20:57): Are you excited about future writing projects? Has this made you a fan of writing?

Evolett Chavez (21:02): Yes, it has.

Curtis Long (21:02): What do you like most about writing in class?

Evolett Chavez (21:05): I like that I use my imagination and use like my ideas that I could use.

Curtis Long (21:10): Well, Evolett congratulations on getting a response and congratulations on writing such an effective letter. Thanks so much for joining us on the podcast today.

Evolett Chavez (21:18): Thank you. You're welcome.

Curtis Long (21:18): Of course, Xander's letter never ends up on the wall at Trader Joe's if it weren't for the efforts of his third grade teacher, Liz Maxwell here at Mount Scott Elementary. Liz, thanks so much for joining us. Tell us a little background behind how all of these student persuasive letters came together.

Liz Maxwell (21:32): Well, in third grade we have a new writing units this year, and one of the units is a persuasive letter writing unit in third and fourth grade actually. And so students are writing persuasive letters to an audience of their choice and they are trying to convince their reader to act or to do something.

Curtis Long (21:51): Now writing professional development has been a focus for elementary teachers in our district at least the last couple of years. Tell us about that and how it's impacted your instruction.

Liz Maxwell (21:59): We have great district leadership that is giving teachers and staff members plenty of professional development opportunities within the district. And then also with writing experts like Matt Glover, it is embedded into our school day. There are some opportunities for teachers to go out and observe Matt Glover teach model lessons. We also have opportunities online in Zoom meetings and Google meets to discuss the new writing units that are coming out, debrief how they went, and then evening opportunities where we can get together and learn from experts. So it's a really supportive way to help teachers roll out this new way of teaching writing.

Curtis Long (22:37): Have you heard from some of your colleagues that have done this persuasive writing that they've got similar things with people writing back from the community like your class has?

Liz Maxwell (22:45): Yes. Some I think some are, you know, disappointed. Maybe they haven't heard from as many people. We've also had some, you know, return to sender letters that we realized we misaddressed the envelopes <laugh>. But yes, and we have had lots of family members getting letters. Students really started the unit kind of thinking a little more locally, thinking about their own families, thinking about their teachers, their principal, who they could write to, you know, within the school community or within their home. And then as we got to writing, they started to think a little broader, you know, into the greater community of Clackamas and Happy Valley. And then even beyond that to Oregon to to other places around the country.

Curtis Long (23:24): Now, what do you enjoy most about teaching writing? It's not an easy skill to teach, especially for elementary students. And you've got third graders who I imagine some are having trouble forming complete sentences and others can write paragraphs. What do you enjoy most about teaching writing with such a wide range of abilities in your classroom?

Liz Maxwell (23:41): Something that's really helped, I think with our new writer's workshop model in the district is that it really provides students of all abilities, access points. So students can write shorter letters, students can write longer, more detailed letters depending on, on their skills. We are able to do small mini lessons and then spend the majority of time actually conferring with students one-on-one, so that we're setting goals with them and that we are working specifically on teaching to their skill levels and what that particular student needs. So this new way of teaching writing this year in third through fifth and last year it was K through second, we are really reaching every student where they're at and meeting everybody's needs.

Curtis Long (24:25): What impressed you the most about what your students came up with?

Liz Maxwell (24:27): The creativity, their thoughts. Just, you know, that they have great ideas that they want to share with the world that we have, you know, Xander writing to Trader Joe's, asking for them to install a toy aisle and having solid reasons to back up and support his argument. We have students writing to start a nature club at our school. We have students writing letters to nutrition services because they have opinions and thoughts about, you know, the school lunches in the school district. So students really have thoughtful opinions and things that they want to say and their words are important.

Curtis Long (25:06): And we'll hear from some of your students a little later on. What was their reaction as they started to receive responses to their writing from community members?

Liz Maxwell (25:13): Oh, it was such excitement. The very first response we got was to a, um, a musician, his name's trombone shorty. And the letter we got was from his manager saying that they would pass on my student Evolett's letter to their agent and the, the booking agent who does his concerts. And even though it was a reply to one student, the entire class was jumping up and down and screaming when we got that letter, they were so excited for her and for all of us, it was like we, it was all of our win.

Curtis Long (25:46): Aw, that's such a great story. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Now I know that you asked your students how they felt at the conclusion of the unit. They certainly felt proud of themselves, and I know you felt proud of them. I hear maybe you even got a little emotional. Tell us about that.

Liz Maxwell (25:56): Yeah, I just, we were ready to move on to our next unit and be done with persuasive letters and there was a general groan throughout the entire, um, <laugh>. What

Curtis Long (26:06): They don't wanna stop writing.

Liz Maxwell (26:07): They don't, they wanted to keep going. Um, and they, they were bummed out. And I said, okay, well let's talk about why, you know, you wanna keep writing these letters. And they, they just truly, it brought tears to my eyes because they said, you know, I feel like with writing these letters, I felt like I was heard. I felt important. It seemed like my voice mattered. Um, they said that it was more than writing a book and hoping that someone reads it. You were writing to a specific audience that you knew were going to read your words. And one little girl said it felt like I could change the world. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. So these students learned that their words meant something important and that their voices were valuable.

Curtis Long (26:53): What do you love most about teaching third grade and not just writing?

Liz Maxwell (26:56): The personalities... These kids are so much fun to work with every day. They've got big ideas and I think when we give students these authentic writing tasks and, you know, meaningful work to do, they rise to the challenge and it's just so much fun to see them grow.

Curtis Long (27:13): Anything else that I didn't touch on that you want to add?

Liz Maxwell (27:15): An interesting part of getting some feedback and letters back and meeting up, we had a visitor from Nutrition Services, Chef Chris from, she's the culinary manager for the district learning the behind the scenes of some of the decisions that are made that wanted at apple juice every day for lunch. And, you know, learning that there are regulations in the state of Oregon about how many days a week apple juice can be served. So there's reasons why decisions are made and and informing kids that these are reasons why, you know, you have your great ideas, but also there's other factors. And same with Trader Joe's. They said, you know, unfortunately we're not able to install a toy aisle. It's part, not part of our, their business model that they focus on groceries. But students still felt heard even though they weren't necessarily getting what they were requesting in their persuasive letter.

Curtis Long (28:05): Well, of course, the purpose of the Proud To Be NCSD podcast is to give our listeners an inside track to some of the most impressive accomplishments by both students and staff members across all of our schools and departments. And it doesn't get more impressive than when students make a lasting impact on their community. That's exactly what Xander and his classmates in Mrs. Maxwell's class have done as part of their most recent persuasive writing unit, landing Xander's letter permanently displayed on the wall at the Clackamas Trader Joe's and many third graders believing their voices can be heard and that they can create change when they're able to express themselves on paper. Xander and Mrs. Maxwell, just as the title of this podcast says, each of you truly makes us proud to be NCSD, congratulations on this latest awesome accomplishment and thanks so much for joining us today.

Liz Maxwell (28:49): Thanks so much for having me.

Xander Sievers (28:50): Thanks for having me.

Curtis Long (28:53): Thanks for listening to The Proud To Be NCSD podcast. In North Clackamas, we know that education is a community effort and we're so thankful that you and your family are a part of our community. Until next time, remember, there are always great things to see wherever you go in NCSD.