To My Students: The Minute You Walk Through That Door

The minute you walk through that door you become one of my students.

And here is what it means to be one of my students:

It means that you will forever be a piece of my heart.

It means that I will think of you far beyond the first and last bells of the day.

It means that I will listen to you and your voice and your ideas and your thoughts and I will help you to find a way to put them into this world.

It means that I will love and accept you for exactly who you are.

It means that I will celebrate in your successes with you, even when you don’t realize that they are successes.

It means that I will work to make sure that the work that we do is meaningful and purposeful and authentic and has value outside of the walls of our classroom.

It means that I will sit with you when you mess up and help you find a way to make things better.

It means that I will help you to see the strengths you posses and help you to see how they make our classroom community, and this world, a better place.

It means that I will love you for your faults and your weaknesses and help you to see how these can be the most powerful places to begin your learning.

It means that I will allow you to struggle in this classroom, I will allow you to feel uncomfortable, I will not hide the things in this world that will cause you to feel that way because I know that these are the things that are worth wrestling with.  

It means that I will acknowledge when I mess up and when I don’t know what to do and I will apologize and ask for your forgiveness.

It means that I will ask for your opinion and I will listen to what you have to say because I believe that you know best what will work for you.  

It means that when you come to me with an idea, I will ask you how you plan to make it happen and I will help you in any way I can without taking away the power of having your own ideas.

It means that I will give you second chances and third chances and fourth chances and as many chances as you need.

It means that I will be there for you on the tough days when you aren’t really sure if you can make it through the school day.

It means that I am on your side. Always.

So I know that you might be nervous to start this next school year. I know that you might be uncertain of what will happen when you walk through that door. But you can rest assured that from the minute you walk through that door, you will be one of my students.

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