letters to my class

Dear Skywatchers,

Today is the big day! The first time in almost one hundred year that a full solar eclipse will cross the entire United States. And here in Colorado we get to see over 90%.

Safety is always the most important thing. On most days, reflexes would make you look away from the sun before you could damage your eyes, but that won’t happen during a solar eclipse and you can do permanent injury to your eyes. So, when we are viewing the eclipse, you will be wearing your special glasses.

Let’s have a great day,

Mr. Heimbuck 

Dear Tinkerers,

I could pop a plastic pod in a coffee machine and hit a button. But it’s a lot more fun to grind and brew my own cup of coffee.

You could go to the dollar store and buy a cheap, plastic balloon car, which would probably break after two runs and end up at the bottom of your toy box. But wouldn’t be a lot more fun to make your own?

Today we’ll focus on making and improving and refining balloon cars. They might work or they might not, but we’re going to learn a lot more than we would by just opening a package.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Learners,

Last night I screwed up badly. I tried to make smash burgers at home and I filled my kitchen with smoke. I think I might even have set off my neighbors’ smoke detector. It was a disaster!

When disaster strikes, you have two options: 1) never ever even think about doing that thing again or 2) try again with some changes. I really, really like smash burgers, so I’m going to try again, but cook them outside next time.

If we have the mindset that we learn from our mistakes, then every disaster is a masterclass. And the biggest mistakes teach us the most.

Make a lot of mistakes today, and learn from every one,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Individuals,

Our class is full of different individuals–we have boys and girls, and tall kids and short kids, and youngest, oldest, and middle siblings. We have individuals from big families and little families. We have people whose families many different languages, believe many different things, and eat many different foods. We have students who were born in Thornton, Colorado and have lived here their entire lives and we have people who were born far away.

And our class is better for all of these diffferences. 

Because each one of us is an individual who gets to decide what kind of person we want to be. Our backgrounds are important and they make each of us unique, but we get to tell our own stories. What is your story going to be?

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

We want our classroom to be a peaceful place where everyone feels they belong. To do that, we made some great classroom rules. Those rules will set a tone of respect in our classroom.

We’re also learning at least four things about each classmate. As Meg Wheatley says, “You can’t hate someone whose story you know.” You’ll have disagreements, but you’ll have a strong enough relationship that you will solve any problems you have. 

Being classmates is an important bond. We are each responsible for helping the other achieve our goals. Together we’re better.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Students,

I am excited for another year of teaching and so happy to have each of you in my class. This week we’re going to talk a lot about our hopes, dreams, and goals for the year. Be thinking what you want to accomplish in 4th grade. If you believe it, you can achieve it.

My goals for the year are to create a peaceful classroom that every student feels a part of, get to know each of you well, and teach you the skills and concepts you need to know in 4th grade. Just as I will help you reach your goals, I know you will help me reach mine.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Heroes,

Doing the right thing is hard. And sometimes it can cost a lot.

Doing the right thing cost Ralph Carr his political career. But years later he was vindicated. That means that history proved him right. We named a Judicial Center after him and built a statue of him. You sat on that statue yesterday. Now when we think of Ralph Carr we think of standing up for what’s right.

So when you’re faced with a conundrum and you’re not sure what to do, give yourself this simple test: If it will only make you popular at the time, don’t do it. If it will lead to citizens naming a $250 million building after you, then do it.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Thinkers,

“There is another world, but it is in this one.” Yeats or Eluard

Books and ideas can take you out of the real world and move you into the ideal Plato knew it–he talked about ideal forms in geometry–and Yeats knew it too–he talked about that place “in the deep heart’s core.”

It’s a place of thought, imagination, and timelessness. It’s a world where you leave the physical limitations of now and get to know humans who lived at different places and different times. And it’s available to everyone.

But it takes a lot of work and commitment to get there. It takes dedication to books and ideas and the belief that they are worth it and that they can change you. My hope is that each of you finds yourself in this other world for much of your life.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Thinkers,

Go to an art museum stand close to a painting (not too close or a person with an ear piece in will tap you on the shoulder). You’ll see that it’s nothing but brushstrokes that don’t look like anything. But then take a few steps back and you’ll see that those brushstrokes and paint turn into something.

Then, take a few more steps back and think about when it was painted, where it was painted, and who painted it. You’ll see that it has a meaning beyond what it represents. It says something about human experience in the world.

Reading is the same way. Turn letters into sounds, sounds into words, words into meaningful sentences and paragraphs, paragraphs into stories, and stories into ideas.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Readers,

If something’s really, really good, then it doesn’t ever get old. Because when something’s really, really good, it’s usually about the issues that humans have always thought about and the issues we will continue to think about in the future: What’s the best way to live in the world? What is the just thing to do? 

So when we read A Christmas Carol or “The Cop and the Anthem” or a book about a whipping boy in 17th century England, we can empathize with the characters even though their lives are way different from our own. Because when it comes to the big issues, we’re mostly the same.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck