letters to my class

Dear Rule Makers,

You may have heard the phrase “there’s an exception to every rule.” That’s not true for math rules. The rules of numbers and patterns and shape are always true because they exist in an imaginary world of ideas.

Yesterday we discovered a rule for generating equivalent fractions. This is a rule that will be incredibly useful to you throughout your math career and your life. You’ll use it countless times when you’re cooking, measuring, or paying bills. But more importantly, you’ll use it to explore the beuatiful patterns that are the heart of our number system. And maybe you’ll convince yourself that those beautiful patterns are at the heart of our universe.

Surround yourself with numbers. Play with numbers. Look for patterns. If you look close enough, you may just discover a few rules that the world’s been missing.

Sincerely,

Mr. H

Dear Constructors of Knowledge,

Scientists are questioners, hypothesizers, observers, experimenters, data collectors, and synthesizers. But they’re also model makers.

Sometimes, in order to really know something, you have to look at all of pieces at one time. If you’re studying something as massive as outer space, you’re going to have to make a model.

Today, we’ll model the sun’s rays hitting Earth. We know Earth’s tilt causes the angle of the sun’s rays to change at different latitudes and at different times of year. How does that affect tempearture? We can’t see the entire Earth at one time and we can’t go through an entire year in a day, so we’ll build a model.

It’s amazing to think how thoroghly Earth’s 23.5 degree tilt has shaped our human lives. What would live be like if there were no tilt? Maybe our model will offer some hints.

Sincerely,

Mr. H

Dear Singers,

I love old folk songs. Knowing history is about more than knowing who did what when. It’s also about trying to empathize and understand what life was like in different places and at different times. I believe listening to and singing the songs of people from different places and different times helps us do that. Even more, these old songs contain a peal of truth that keeps ringing across the world and into and beyond our own times.

So today we’ll sing lots of old songs: We’ll sing songs about freedom, songs about rambling and wanderin’, songs abour friendship, and songs about nothing at all. When we do it, think about what life was like for the people who first sang these songs and also what truths still resonate today.

Sincerely,

Mr. H

Dear Book Readers,

There are many ways to find things out about the world. I like to do it by reading books.

I don’t think there’s a better way to explore an idea than by reading a book (or a bunch of books). What’s more, books help us leave the everyday world and learn about a time or place that we can’t visit any other way. Most importantly, books can explore a future that’s not yet been imagined.

I have a slew of books I’ve checked out from the library that I think you’ll enjoy. They’re new, they’re spectacular, and they’ll remind you why reading is such a worthwhile pursuit.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Seekers of Justice,

Doing the right thing is not always the easy thing. Sometimes doing the right thing can make you feel uncomfortable or threaten your safety. When Harriet Tubman led her people to freedom, she risked capture by patrollers and severe punishment. The many thousand slaves who risked passage on the Underground Railroad could have been forced back into the cruelties of slavery or worse. When Martin Luther King Jr. marched for an end to Jim Crow laws in the South, he ended up in a Birmingham jail cell.

“There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Pattern Makers,

Humans are always looking for patterns. We take our raw experience and weave it into patterns. If it were only us, we might not come up with much. We look at the nightsky and see only countless pinpricks of light. Fortunately, humans have figured out ways to share our observations across time and space. Over thousands of years and at the hands of tens of billions of people, we have discovered deep truths about the universe.

Today, we’ll learn about the patterns that govern our little corner of that universe, and we’ll talk about how those patterns affect our human lives.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck

Dear Optimists,

This weekend I received a baseball book in the mail. It’s an annual preview of the upcoming season, and I’ve gotten a new edition of the book every year since 2003. That was before any of you were born.

I always look forward to reading this book because it gets me excited for the upcoming baseball season. I mean really excited. I mean more excited than a kid on Christmas Eve. Even if my team is out of contention by the beginning of summer (which they will be if the recent past is any predictor), Opening Day brings hope to all teams. Maybe this year is the year.

It’s good to look forward to things. Even things as unimportant to “real life” as the upcoming baseball season are what give life its flavor and make it worth living.

My hope for you is that you find things to look forward to, no matter how foolish or unimportant they may seem to others.

Sincerely,

Mr. Heimbuck