A third grade teacher at Pinecrest Elementary School near Miami uses her love of NFL football to teach students valuable lessons — including the joys of writing letters.
Mary Crippen incorporates football games, teams, players and on-field incidents into her classroom activities.
She encourages students to choose an NFL team and learn everything they can about it, such as the geography of their location and facts about star players.
One of her assignments involves the Postal Service. She has her students write a letter to their chosen team.
For many, this is the first letter they have ever written.
In response to the letters, NFL teams have mailed packages to the students containing jerseys, hats, rally towels, autographs, fanny packs, pencils, stickers, pins and other souvenirs.
Players such as New York Giants quarterback Jameis Winston have recorded an inspirational message for the students, and others have visited Crippen’s classroom.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers gave game tickets to a student who wrote to his team so she and her family could attend his game versus the Miami Dolphins. And Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa donated $50,000 to build a flag football field outside Crippen’s school.
The students were amazed to see the results of their letters, but Crippen teaches them to keep a proper perspective, emphasizing that receiving gifts is not the point of the program.
“If you start expecting these things, you’re in it for the wrong reasons,” she told them.
Email us your feedback. Your comments could be included in our “Mail” column.
