Hello again! This is Jody’s son, Chris, writing to let you know that we need your help!

By “you” I mean anyone. Whether you are a blog reader of Jody’s, a parent/teacher/student at her school, a former parent/teacher/student, a close friend, a colleague, or family member, we need your input and opinions to help Jody write her newest book.

Better said, to help us write her newest book.

As you may or may not know, Jody recently underwent surgery on her right eye to repair a detached retina. Jody’s left eye is her bad eye. Technically speaking, she’s legally blind in that eye, leaving her with a blind eye…and a basically blind eye. Does that stop her from writing, responding to emails, and working at the school? Of course not!

Not even super glue in her eye can stop this lady!

However, for this next project I (and her family, I might add) don’t want her straining her eyes to write. Jody will require a second eye surgery sometime in the near future, making it even more imperative that she try and slow down where she can. Not an easy task for her, as many of you know!

Now, this next book is one that we really want to be special and unique. As most of you probably know already, Jody is a unique educator and has accomplished more than most educators could in five lifetimes.

However, Jody has yet to write her definitive book on education. She has books on learning styles, parenting styles, becoming a treasured teacher, A.D.D., children’s ministry, discipline, and on and on. There’s even an autobiography that’s quite funny! Yet there is no book that really puts all these pieces together the way she does so seamlessly in the schools she starts.

I started brainstorming this project recently, and when mom’s eye problems suddenly emerged, I realized that I wanted to be involved in the writing process and that I would like to interview mom and use her responses for most of the content.

Yet I still felt something was missing. And that’s where you come in. I want voices of those she has touched over the years to be involved, too. Not that this is a tribute book to mom (though she deserves it!). Instead, I feel that mom is so multi-faceted that one person’s perspective of her, even if that perspective is her own or someone close to her, is insufficient at capturing all she does in schools and churches.

At this point in the project, I am open to any and all opinions. What I want to know from you is your answers questions such as these:

• How has Jody’s approach to education affected you or your family?
• What attracted you to Jody’s school? What made you stay?
• What do you see Jody do that other educators don’t?
• If you had to boil Jody down to her essence, what would that be?
• What questions would you like to ask Jody? Maybe you’ve always wondered why she emphasizes learning styles or blends different educational approaches? This is your chance to ask!

You don’t necessarily have to answer these exact questions. Just something like these. Add any insight you can, make your answers as short or as long as you want, and don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or anything like that. You can ramble and gush as much as you want!

We will use these early responses to start putting together the content and structure of the book. Later on, as we begin to see more clearly what we want to create here, we might ask to interview you, too — if you’re up for it.

Thanks for all your help! I’m sure Jody has touched each one of you in some way, and nothing would make her family happier than to see her wisdom and experience captured in writing so that she has a written legacy of all the incredible things she has accomplished in her 40 years in education.

So please help us. Send in your responses to jody.capehart@jodycapehart.com, and PLEASE forward this to others, post it on Facebook, share it on Twitt, etc. We want as much input as possible!

Thanks so much and Happy New Year!

Chris