letters to my class

Dear Makers,

If we only did worksheets in class you could be perfect. You could fill in every blank perfectly, bubble in every letter choice perfectly, and draw every matching line perfectly.

But in real life (and in this classroom), we spend most of our time making things. Making art, making stories, making arguments, and making sense. And when you’re making things, perfection doesn’t enter into the equation.

So today when you’re making your stories, or making sense of a math problem, or making an idea about a book you’re reading, don’t worry about making it perfect. Make it make sense and make it have meaning.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

It’s important to have a reading spot. Try to find a place that is quiet, well-lit, and free of distractions. Oh, and make sure you have your stack of to-read books next to it.

But don’t worry too much about what your reading spot looks like because once you crack the book, you will be magically transported away. When you’re reading intensely, you will be so engrossed in your book, so lost in the world that the author created that when you look away from the page you will blink your eyes, shake your head, forget where you are, and slowly come back to reality.

And then you’ll look back into the book and get lost once again.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Cartographers,

Today we will make our maps of Colorado. And we’ll make this model of land inside that invisible rectangle by using materials that came from that land:

• 2 cups of flour from the Great Plains that stretch into Eastern Colorado
• 1 cup of salt from mines like they have all over the state
• 1 Tbsp of cream of tartar that came from the inside of wine barrels like they have in vineyards in Palisade, CO
• 1 cup of water that came trickling down from the Rocky Mountains

Think about these resources as you’re forming your maps and ponder that big connection between the physical world we live in and the mental world we create out of it.

And make sure you keep a lot of flour on hand.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

Our society gives more attention to the bad than the good. At school, bad behavior will get you lots of time and attention with adults, but good attention is often ignored. If you watch the news, you might think it’s common for strangers to snatch kids,  but that’s really not true.

There are dangers in the world, but I believe the good far, far outweighs the bad. What’s more, I think always seeing the world as a dangerous and fearful place creates its own problems: we refuse to trust others, we act selfishly because we think everyone else does, and we assume that we can’t do anything to make the world a better place. These negative attitudes are the biggest dangers we face.

So at least for today, look for the good, do your part to be a helper, and be confident that most of the people in the world are on your side.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Language Learners,

This may sound strange, but I loved grading your spelling tests over the weekend. English has borrowed words from so many other languages that’s it often weird and confusing. But it’s also really rich for communicating ideas. Ideas just seem to live and grow inside of these words and it’s so much fun to string these words together in new and interesting ways.

My hope for each of you is that you learn the powers of language so you can use it to make sense of the world and also to make change in the world. Language is the best tool we have for that.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Talkers,

At school we talk to each other. To make sense of problems, to figure out how texts work, to find out what we believe. These things all come about through conversation. And conversation is more about listening and thinking than talking.

So we’ll continue to practice having conversations because we can only ever learn from other people and while reading their words on a subject can be very helpful, there’s nothing quite like a face to face conversation.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Strivers,

The things I really enjoy now–cooking, reading, writing, playing music–were really, really hard at the beginning. 

When you first play the guitar your fingers bleed and the sounds don’t sound like music. When you first start to cook the food is bad and you burn things and there’s always that fear that you might poison yourself. When you write, you have to get down a lot of bad stuff amidst the tiny percentage of good stuff. 

The key to success in all areas is exactly the same: failure followed by trying again and again. And even after you get pretty good at these things, the only way to get better is to keep failing.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

The internet tells me that yesterday was #NationalReadABookDay.

Boys and girls, that’s every day in our world.

Millions of people have read John Steinbeck’s book Cannery Row, but when I first read it (and when I reread it), it sure seems he wrote it just for me. That’s what good books do. They connect with you in ways that are so meaningful that you believe the author is living in your brain. Music, movies, television, and video games are great, but they just can’t match the personal connection that happens with books.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Learners,

You set your goals–like reading 40 or more books in a year–but you can only reach it by doing a bit at a time–one page at a time. As  you reach milestones, you clelebrate, but you know the real reward is in the kind of person you’ll be after you read those 40 books.

So figure out what you want to do, find out the steps you need to take to do it, and work at them one at time, each day, each hour, knowing that the hard work is always worth it.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck