letters to my class

Dear Revisers,

There’s a story that the famous artist Michelangelo once said that carving an elephant from a block of stone was easy because you just knock off all the stuff that doesn’t look like an elephant.

Today we’ll begin looking closely at the stories we’ve been working on and knock off the stuff that doesn’t look like a story.

You all have stories to tell. My job is to teach you some tricks to tell them. These aren’t my tricks. Writers have been using these tricks since the beginning because they work.

And these tricks won’t just improve your writing. They might also make you see the world in a new and different way.
Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Learners,

I’m wearing my college colors today. I learned so much when I was in college, but when I left I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a job. I did, however, know how to learn whatever I needed to know to do whatever I wanted to do.

No matter what you want to do with your life, you’re going to have to keep on learning throughout your life. College is a great place to do that, but your learning doesn’t stop when you turn your tassel.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Imaginers,

Yesterday my four year old told me that princesses were only real at Disney. I explained to her that even those princesses were only pretending, but that through pretending we can make something that’s better than real.

“Can I have magic if I pretend?” She asked.

“Yes,” I replied. “Imagination is the most powerful type of magic.”

It makes me think of Frankenstein’s monster. We can all imagine what it looks like and how it walks and probably even tell Monster stories. But Frankenstein’s monster came out of an author’s imagination (and monster stories she borrowed from). 

Mary Shelley’s magic was far beyond Dr. Frankenstein’s. She created something that will never die.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Adventurers,

As I was eating that cricket taco the other day, I wasn’t thinking about whether it was “bad” or “good.” I was thinking, “I’m eating a cricket taco and this is a cool experience.”

If you only do, see, eat, or read things that you think you like, you shut yourself off from the rest of the world. I think it’s better to approach new things with an open mind. 

As individuals we only get to experience a tiny sliver of this vast universe. If we want to ever understand anything about that universe, we must allow in experiences other than our own. 

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Writers,

Writers aren’t people who have the most interesting or important things to say. They’re just people who have figured out an interesting way to say it.

Your personal narrative topic might not be too exciting. Mine is about a squirrel in my kitchen. Most people have had a wild animal in the house, many of them probably worse than a squirrel. But the quality of my personal narrative is all about how well I tell the story.

Robert Frost wrote a poem comparing fireflies to the stars. That sounds pretty boring. But he did it in such a beautiful and meaningful way that we still read it and memorize it one hundred years later.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

I’ve been lucky in my life to have lots of people–friends and family–who have always rooted me on. And they have supported me unconditionally. When I’ve succeeded, they’ve acted like they knew I would all along, and when I’ve failed they acted like they knew it wouldn’t last very long.

We all deserve this. 

You might already have lots of fans, but you can’t ever have too many. So count me as another one. No matter what you do, no matter how difficult it gets for you, I’ll always be cheering you on and expecting great things from you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Humans,

One of my favorite bands has a new album out today. I’ve been looking forward to it all summer.

Looking forward to things, even little things, makes life a little sweeter. For kids it might be a little bit easier: you’re probably looking forward to Christmas, your birthday, or that upcoming family camping trip. 

Sometimes adults have a harder time of it. But looking forward to the little things makes it easier to keep on hoping for the big ones.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Workers,

Life is mostly grunt work.

If you want to be a great cook, get ready to wash a whole bunch of dishes. If you want to be a great musician, prepare to practice a lot of scales. If you want to beat that video game, you’re probably going to spend a lot of time dying and reviving at that one level with that one monster.

So we joyfully and mindfully do the grunt work so the big, beautiful stuff can follow.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Coloradoans,

I’m not from Colorado, but I like to know about the place I’m living. And even though the lines between Colorado and its neighbors are invisible, they’ve existed long enough that they just might mean something. And even though Colorado is an imaginary square in the middle of a giant land mass, I believe the people and the places in that square have melded together into a common place that we call Colorado.

Your task is to learn about that place–its history, its geography, its culture–because it is your job to create its future.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Hackers,

The other day I was scraping the gills off the bottom of portobello mushrooms, and I kept thinking, “Isn’t there some sort of hack to make this job easier?” And then I figured out the hack of all hacks:

Keep doing something over and over until you get good at it.

First we know exactly what we want to get better at, then we break it up into the important parts, then we practice those skills over and over. As we do that, we keep track of our progress towards our goals.

So while I improve at prepping mushrooms, you will use the same model to become better readers, writers, and problem solvers.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck