‘What I wish my teacher knew’ mailbox idea goes viral for all the right reasons
There’s something really special about a teacher who goes the extra mile to connect with their students. One teacher, who posts on TikTok as @positivemisst, is going viral on the platform after she made a video about her method, which involves making a “‘What I wish my teacher knew” mailbox where her students can leave her notes about anything and everything they want to tell her.
“I started an ‘I wish my teacher knew mailbox’ and here’s how it went,” she wrote in her video, next to a picture of the mailbox, which she painted white and placed on a counter in her classroom next to an inviting bouquet of flowers.
Miss T continued, “I check it every day at 9:45 during my prep and at the end of the day. Students can tell me something good, something bad, a check in, a request, really anything they want to tell me! I’m using this for blurts, too. They can write what they REALLY want me to know and put it in there.”
On the next slide, she showed one of the notes she received, which read, “Everyone is making fun of my backpack.”
Next to it, she wrote, “This helps because they may not always have the confidence to come verbally tell you what’s going on. This was written anonymously and I addressed bullying HARD as a whole group. I shared stories of times I felt bullied and was a bully too. We haven’t had any problems since.”
But not every note is that serious, she continued. “Sometimes they just leave something sweet.”
She added a few photos of examples, like a heart-shaped note with “I love you you are the best” written across it, and a picture one of her students drew for her during recess. Another note included a drawing of the house from Pixar’s “Up” with a note that read, “Miss T You are the best teacher ever.”
“This one… this one made me sob,” she wrote.
One was a piece of paper that simply read, “I’m sad.”
“This was a blurt one during morning meeting,” Miss T explained. “He didn’t feel comfortable sharing verbally, but we talked and he said he is just SO sad summer is over and he’s going to miss his mom. We made a plan together to get through this.”
That story really shows the power and positive impact that this type of communication can have. It gives students a way to open up on their own terms — and it’s clearly working.
“As a parent I appreciate this so much! My child ‘saves’ her feelings until she gets home, and knowing that these kids have a safe place to express them while they’re happening is such a comfort!
” one parent wrote in the comments.
Miss T’s idea even inspired other teachers. One wrote, “I wonder how I could adapt this for middle school. maybe a lockbox to prevent peeking & ask them to add initials somewhere on the paper, since it can get heavy.”
