Trucker Buddy starting in 1992 and is a pen pal program using the teacher as a conduit to students. The truck driver can send postcards and emails to the students through the teacher who then uses these as a teaching aid to teach geography and as a added bonus put a face on those of us that drive trucks. Classes and drivers are matched up in many ways, class close to the driver’s home, classes along a route, or in our case the ability to share using the computer. Many drivers will set up an appointment with their teacher to bring the truck to the school and will share with the student’s safety around truck and give the kids a chance to sit in the drivers seat.
We have been members of Trucker Buddy for several years and currently we have a teacher in France who has several classes. Stephanie is their English teacher. Funny thing about Stephanie is that she learned English in England and she has a fantastic England accent. I believe she speaks English better than we do.
During the year we send over postcards as well as emails to the classroom. We are not home often and most of our correspondence is done using the computer. Our teacher Stephanie has been fun to work with and we enjoy hearing how the students use the postcards we send to present reports in English about different areas of the country.
During the month I keep track in Streets and Trips of where we pickup and deliver our loads all over the country. At the end of the month I take a screen shot of the map, and send that picture to the students. I also create a list of the cities that we pickup and deliver in and the mileage, the students use these maps in their math class to learn mileages. Their common comment is that Texas is bigger than France.
Someday we hope to go over to France and meet our teacher in person and talk to the many students we have influenced over the years.
We have an teacher who is able to create an for her students to learn and have fun. Stephanie also has an exceptional group of students who I know are all brilliant after speaking to them, emails, as well as letters in their grasp of a foreign language. We are very proud of our Trucker Buddy Classes and it is fun to watch the videos they send and to listen to them speak English with a French Accent.
If you would like to learn more about this program or get involved visit the Trucker Buddy Site:
http://www.truckerbuddy.org