To my grade 3 class,
I have exactly 31 teaching days with you left. You don’t realize this yet- you are eight years old and the concept of counting down to something other than Christmas is beyond your reality. You are living for soccer at recess and spelling games and Art class on Friday. You live for computer class free time and the moment you realize how to multiply 6 by 7. That’s one of my favourite things about you- you aren’t thinking about tomorrow because you are too busy filling up today.
And you’ve filled up my year beyond my expectations. We acted out the solar system, we wrote pirate stories and created math games. We had dance offs and chuckwagon races in gym and we built secret forts to read in. When we all were hit with the flu, we curled up in balls with stuffed animals all afternoon and watched Bill Nye as he built an odometer. We pretended we were explorers as we navigated maps and we decided to be architects as we built bridges out of popsicle sticks and play dough. We laughed reading Robert Munsch, sang along with Julie Andrews, talked about love and bit our pencils when we wrote our own masterpieces. And when we read The Giving Tree? No one laughed when others cried.
We had a burping contest after learning why the body burps.
There have been endless show and tells and knock knock jokes and band-aids gingerly applied. Hugs and high fives have been countless. When Elizabeth told us she made the soccer team we all cheered, when Jacob broke his arm we all signed his cast with hearts and smiley faces and when Cam puked on Pizza Day, so many of you rushed to get paper towel to help clean up, even Cam cracked a smile. And when we found lice entered the school? We all scratched our head.
Maybe it’s just what happens when you get older, you see past today and look a little further down the road. I can see the last day already- flip-flops and sagging backpacks, popsicle stained lips and sweaty high-fives. Each of you will exclaim as you uncover lost treasures as you pack up your desk- cans of playdough, a lost marker, a postcard from Drew when he went to Legoland in October. I can already see your smiles as you run back to give me one last hug before happily skipping to your bus without looking back. And then I’ll let you go- to summer and tradition and a new teacher in the fall.
So tomorrow there will be 30 days with you left. And I will think of that number as we talk about Shel Silverstein and division and why we use quotation marks. I will smile as you hand me a picture you drew for me- a girl and her teacher both with happy faces and red lips. I will be thankful and laugh as the lunch bell rings and we put on a song I downloaded just because I knew you would love it. I just never realized how much I would end up loving each of you.
Some people grow up and have jobs they never like. Thank you for making me love mine every day. Stay young for as long as possible, play with Lego all summer and listen to your favourite Julie Andrews song on repeat until your brother hides your ipod. Stay just as you are for as long for as you can and when it’s time? I can’t wait for you to grow up. I know you are going to be something spectacular.
Love,
Your teacher
As a fellow teacher, I can only echo these sentiments and multiply them by 10… teaching is definitely one of the (if not THEE) most rewarding lifestyle that exists. I’m so happy to read of someone else appreciating the little things that we are so privileged to experience every day!
Oh, Brandy. If only every teacher loved what they do as much as you do – the world would be such a better place!
This made me cry. My daughter has a teacher like you. I wish all children were so lucky.
Love. this.
This is so beautiful. What a wonderful teacher you are!
This made me cry just like “What Teachers Make” by Taylor Mali makes me cry.
I love your enthusiasm and passion for teaching. It’s inspiring. One day I hope to get that perfect teaching job, too. <3
I am crying, as I think about leaving my kids for the summer and they are 16-year olds, some of whom I’ll have again next year! You have beautifully captured what it is like to be a teacher.
That is absolutely beautiful!
you are incredible.
What a moving, beautiful post. You sound like a kick arse, memorable teacher :)
I think we could learn a lot from 3rd graders – living in the moment and cherishing it. Celebrating the little things :)
x
This made me want to start teaching again. Little people are the best (well, when they’re not being the worst) ;)
Oh the sweetness. This is a lovely letter, hey. Are you going to give your class a copy?
I’m thinking on it! I would like to write each of them something. I’ve taken a lot of photos throughout the year and am also considering making them each a little slideshow on a disc. Or, they may just all get a high five.
Fantastic letter. Every class should have a teacher like you!
How beautiful. I hope my boys get teachers like you even part of their years.
Great post and great letter to your students. Made me reminisce about elementary school, when life was breezy and care free. Those kids are lucky to have you as their grade 3 teacher!
If I have kids, I hope they have a teacher as special and inspiring as you. Your students are very lucky to have you!
When those kids are older, they’ll look back on their school years and remember those favorite teachers. We all do it. Brandy, you will be remembered fondly as ‘my favorite grade 3 teacher’ by tons of former students. They may not look back when they run for the bus on the last day of school, but they will look back throughout their lives.
Maybe it’s my PMS (yeah, definitely my PMS) but it’s 8:40am, and I’m sitting at my desk SOBBING.
This was awesome and bittersweet.
I had to star this post in my reader and keep it in my extra-special favorites folder. Even though I’m about to graduate from law school, you honestly have my dream job. And one day, I’m going to make it happen! Thanks for inspiring me this morning – what an amazing, amazing teacher you must be.
This made me teary in a really sweet way. It reminded me of my favorite teachers and in my heart I hope they felt that way about me too.
this is the cutest thing ever. it made me think a lot about my elementary education and the teachers who shaped me and all the fun i had at that age. you sound like an amazing teacher, and i’m sure you are influencing those kids like crazy!
This is MAGICAL.
My mom has been an elementary teacher for various grades for the past 17 years and I’ve witnessed her teaching experiences and how they’ve changed over time. The one thing that hasn’t changed though is that she, like you, really values each kid and their individual possibility. I’m really happy that you love your job so much and hope that as time progresses nothing else (fellow teachers, board meetings, school funding/defunding, standards, parents, and all of the other things that go along with being a teacher) ever takes away from the experiences you get to share as a teacher to the kids in your classroom. :)
This is such a lovely letter! I agree – it might be nice to share it with the kids. It would make a really amazing keepsake to look back on years down the road. They are very lucky to have you as their teacher :)
Dear Brandy, please keep your inbox empty so that I can send you frantic freaking out emails this summer as I get ready to start my first year of teaching art.
No pressure though.
What a great letter! As a teacher-on-leave, you made me miss working with those little people so much. I would def. give your kids a copy – I used to take a class picture on the last day of school, format it 4 to a page, get it copied and cut at Kinkos into postcards. You could paste that letter on the back and it would be a perfect summer surprise for your little 4th graders.
I have been teaching for 33years and I am so very thankful everyday for being allowed to walk beside the amazing humans i share each day with as they learn and grow. At the end of each day, I give each child a kiss on the head-a thank you for our time together. An acknowledgement of the triumphs and the troubles, the laughter and the tears that come when an authentic connection of the heart is present. Teaching is an honor and I am blessed!
brandy this is just beautiful and i adore it. you seriously make me want to work with kids more and more!
I really really wish I had you as my 3rd grade teacher. I had this incredibly scary woman who yelled every.single.day. I came home terrified nearly everyday. I would have learned SO much in your class.
I loved reading this! It almost made me cry. And then I counted and realized that I only have 32 days left with my preschoolers. It sounds like you’re an amazing teacher! You do awesome stuff with the kids and you really care about them.
:-)
Your my favorite teacher Miss V.
I love this so much. You’ve inspired me to write a letter to my students, too.
I just randomly stumbled upon your blog today and I am so glad I did. I too am a teacher in Canada – just starting but a teacher nonetheless.
Your letter is amazing. It shows your passion for teaching and for your students.
Please, give them a copy. They will cherish it.
this is the best. teachers are underappreciated. i hope your students know how lucky they are to have one that cares so much about them. have a great end of the year!
This is wonderful. Youre great!
Omg, this made me all teary-eyed.
Sigh. This made me wistful. So many of my kiddos are moving on to kindergarten next year, and I will miss their lovely little faces like nothing else.
My kids have had teachers like you and it has made a huge impact on each of them. My daughter decided she wanted to be a teacher when she grows up after one particularly amazing teacher.
I used to be a kindergarten teacher, so I know exactly what you mean about that feeling and never realizing you would love them so much. Last year a kid I had in my kindergarten class sent me his high school graduation announcement. It was the best thing in the world!
your words slay me.
right.
to.
my.
core.
i love you, and we’ve never even met.
what an extraordinary gift you are to these children.
xoxo,
laura
This is so amazing and made me teary-eyed like nobody’s business. It also reminds me why I so wanted to be a teacher years ago and how much I still regret letting myself be talked out of it.
My third-grade teacher was my favourite teacher ever, and I still have the little letters and pictures she gave me. I’m almost 34. Please give this letter to your kids – they will love it always.
You are a wonderful, wonderful teacher. Your students are very luck to have you!!
So I have lurked on your blog for a while now, and never commented. As heartbreaking as some of your posts are, the most heartwarming ones are the times you write about your students. I have had the privilege to teach 1st grade (not Grade 1, as I live in Seattle :) ) for 10 years now. I always tell people that I don’t feel like I have “worked” a day in my life. Sure, some of those days have been incredibly difficult and I go home exhausted more than once a week; but you are right, those amazing students give us the gift of getting to get up and go to a “job” we love every day. You sound like an incredible teacher! Enjoy your last 30 days!
This gave me chills. What a beautiful post! I should write something about the students I worked with this year – I’m a school psych and I love the “in the moment” perspective that kids have. I miss it.
Brandy, this is fantastic. I was an education major for the longest time and I had some of the crappiest teachers to mentor me. Teachers who were burned out and didn’t care about their profession anymore. Your kids are so, so lucky to have you.
This is just beautiful! May they remember you as you remember them…
I wish so hard that I had you as a third grade teacher. Your year sounds AWESOME!
brandy, you are such an amazing girl. i hope like hell i get to meet you at bisc next year, and i pray my someday-babies have at least one teacher just like you.
mwah.
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