Dear Makers,
We made a big mess yesterday, and making salt dough didn’t go as well as we hoped. But we’re too foolish to give up. So we’ll try again today. Be thinking about what we need to change to be more successful today.
It’s easy to give up. And sometimes it might seem like the smart thing to do. But usually the wisest course of action, especially if you don’t want to or you failed spectacularly the first time, is to simply try again.
Sincerely,
Mr. Heimbuck
Dear Knuckleballers,
R.A. Dickey just won the Cy Young award. That means he was honored as the best pitcher in the National League. Dickey has been around the league a long time and for most of it, he wasn’t a very successful pitcher. He never threw the ball very hard, so a few years ago he decided to reinvent himself as a knuckleball pitcher.
A knuckleball is a type of pitch that moves slower than other pitches but that moves in unpredictable ways because of the way the pitcher grips it. The only way you can become a good knuckleball pitcher is by throwing the pitch over and over and over and over. In R.A. Dickey’s first game throwing the knuckleball, he gave up 6 home runs. But he didn’t give up. He kept throwing it, over and over and over and over. Slowly, he got better, but he never stopped he never stopped practicing. Now, he’s the best pitcher in the league. He didn’t get there because he was more gifted than the other pitchers. He got there because he persevered.
Sincerely,
Mr. Heimbuck
letters to my class 