Tomorrow I begin my first day at my new school! In honor of new beginnings and recognizing where you come from, here is the letter I wrote on my last day of second grade at Northwest.
____________________________________________________________________________________________ June 7, 2018
My Dear Second Grade Class,
Congratulations second graders, YOU DID IT! I cannot believe we are here at the end of the year, 180 school days since we sat here in our classroom reading a letter at the start of our journey together. As I think about our school year, I think of three very important lessons you taught me. It all happened one day when we were going over a bunch of your work as we often do. I asked the question, “Why did I pass back your work?” and you responded with three amazing answers that blew me away! Since then we wrote them on our whiteboard and we have said them often. I will probably continue to say them as long as I am a teacher.
Number 1: Learn from mistakes. We have all made mistakes this year, each and every one of us. When you had a difficult time with a friend out on the playground you learned from those mistakes. When you got a problem wrong on a test, you worked hard and then you learned from those mistakes. Some of you even gave up your own recess or special time to learn from mistakes! You probably had to erase, change, fix or even start a paper over. Even I made many mistakes but you were kind and forgave me and I learned from those mistakes. While all of our mistakes may have felt frustrating, the important thing is that we learned from them!
Number 2: Learn from others. This year each one of you shared your ideas, your knowledge, your answers and your stories. You taught each other so much and you taught me so much. Never forget that for the rest of your life you are a learner and a teacher!
Finally, Number 3: Be proud of hard work. From reading Frog and Toad, to counting the seeds in a pumpkin. From putting on the “We Need Trees” play to practicing Rocket Math facts and passing levels. From learning about mixtures and solutions to describing our favorite type of communities. From working hard to reach reading goals to writing fractured fairytales. From trying to design a boat for the Tortoise and the Hare to building a new mattress for the Princess and the Pea. From adding and subtracting three-digit numbers to creating your own graphs. From speaking kindly to classmates to learning to include others in your games at recess. Second graders, you have so much to be proud of this year!
Next year we all will go different ways. Some of you will go to the new Northwest and have different third grade teachers. Some of you might move to a new school, be in a new class and make new friends. Even I will be in a different school next year. Just as we talked about all year, we can be both sad and nervous as well as happy and excited all at that same time. But remember, no matter where we all go, learn from your mistakes, learn from others and be proud of your hard work! (Guess what, I even plan to make a poster of these for my new classroom next year!) In your last moments as second graders, I want you to know that you will always have these three things you learned in this classroom and you will always have my love and support!
With love, your teacher,
Mrs. Meassick
Sarah, Plain and Tall 