I posted this and had some good results.

So, I’m an online English teacher as well as a writer. I teach language arts and English to middle and high school students and beginning comp to college students. The course work is far more rigorous than most people/students realize.

Most of my students are just back from winter break for second semester. Some of them are off and running already with a fantastic start. But the majority have not shown up yet and that is a riddle I need to solve. I find that if I can get them to at least read one of my weekly goofy emails “from the farm,” they will engage with me and get to work. But that is more difficult than you’d think. These students are at home and mostly unsupervised and they have access to video games and YouTube. Why would they choose to read a lesson in English each day?

I need new ideas in order to compete, in order to know these students and have them know me. I have to find ways to let them know that I care, that I see them, that I want them to love learning and to be able to do what they want with their lives.