"Dear Future Me..."A Great Reflection Assignment for Students

If you are one to focus on the future or the past very much, you may want to know that there's a website out there called, "Futureme.org." With this website, you are able to write an e-mail to yourself and send it at a future date in which you wish to receive it. I wrote an e-mail to myself and scheduled it to arrive on my birthday (now that's seriously clever because even if everyone forgets my birthday, I will have wished myself a happy one)! This website is adorable, and it really made me think about my own future and the possibilities of how I could use it in the classroom. If you could write a letter to the future you, what would you say?

The Future is a Mystery

The future is so mysterious to us all and the past is all too real, but Futureme.org is kind of a cool way for you or your students to tap into the future. If you go onto the website to write a letter to yourself, you can make it private or public. You can read a few letters that have been made public and you will begin to see that many of them seem to give very good advice to themselves. Here are a couple examples:

"Remember Grade 8, when you met Victoria. Remember how strange and clingy you thought she was. Remember how she turned into one of your best friends. Don't let yourself forget how awkward you were about meeting new people...."

"I hope you've achieved what you set out to do in 2013. Think of how you felt about everything back then. Think about the ambition you had to do what you loved. Even if the hard work didn't get you as far as you had hoped, remember that every day, and every experience is a lesson to better oneself."

A New Future You

At the beginning of each school year, I have my students make a personal file on themselves. I have them fill out interests surveys, and reading and writing surveys (which gives me a great idea about their skills, interests, love (or not) for reading and writing), and then I have them handwrite a letter to their future selves, seal it in an envelope and address it to themselves. I put the letter in their student file as well, and I give it back to them on the last day of school. Almost everyone forgets that they wrote the letter at all. It's great fun to watch them open it up, recount what they wrote, and compare it to how their school year actually went.

Whether you use the old fashioned way of writing to yourself, or the futureme.org website, writing a letter to the future you is a great idea! Think of all the ways you could use futureme.org. It might be a fun little writing exercise for your class, or a way to give yourself some very good advice. Either way, it should be great fun for everyone!