To My New Students on the First Day of School

Today is the day that an empty classroom gets filled with life, laughter and learning. Today is the day that you finally show up!

I’ve spent more hours than I can count hanging store-bought signs and making sure that each glue stick and paper clip finds a home. Even so, I can’t wait until every wall is over-filled with the evidence of all that you’ve learned–until I need to step over you and a slew of your supplies to cover one of my posters with your brilliant writing.

Maybe you don’t feel brilliant, but you are home-run fireworks exploding in the night sky at Ranger’s Stadium. Smarter than the brain-child of Albert Einstein and Issac Newton, you are capable of more than you realize. You are:

–a voracious READER
–an imaginative AUTHOR
–an inspiring LEADER
–an out-of-the-box THINKER
–an creative INVENTOR
–an inquisitive DISCOVERER
–a compassionate FRIEND

You are important, and you are loved.

You bring a uniqueness and strength to our classroom that your classmates and I cannot do without. We are each better because of you.

This is a safe place, so don’t be afraid to try. I’ll mess up sometimes, and so will you, but we will give our mistakes value by allowing them to help us grow.

Growing is what matters, and we’ll do that together, a little at a time. There will be lots of times when I ask you to do something that seems really hard. You might need to think bigger and higher than you ever have before.

You can do it! School is a place where you learn things that can take you to the places you want to go. My job is to give you every possible opportunity to learn, and I promise to do my very best.

So, dream big.
Aim high.
Keep on trying.
Believe that you can.

Ask questions.
Be curious.
Let your mind wonder.
Get your feet wet.

Above all, and in the words of Disney’s Cinderella, “Have courage and be kind.”

Being the smartest and strongest is useless if you don’t have the courage to try. Knowing everything means nothing without kindness.

In what has come to be known as the Golden Rule, Jesus of Nazareth said, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.”

No matter our differences, we are all the same in that we can decide to treat each other well. This year, we will choose kindness.

Nine months from now, I’ll be stepping over you and your slew of supplies to take down brilliant writing from over-filled walls. You’ll step through my door one last time and leave an empty classroom behind.

180 days is not nearly enough time to share with you, so let’s give our best to today.

–Mrs. Chapman