The View From a Different Window: "Dear Marissa,"

Good morning dear friends and family~
Half of the blessed time that we all lovingly refer to as the "weekend" has come and gone. How fast the time flies, it would surely seem. A quick check on my phone's weather app tells me that it's going to be a pretty fine day here along the Western Slopes. Spring, my most cherished time of the year, is set to arrive here in about 26 days more. This has been a long and hard winter for so many of us and sometimes it's hard to fathom that we really will see the warm days come back around once again. Take heart everyone and don't give up because they will come. Winter is stubborn and determined some years but it cannot last forever. It only supposes that it can.

This day's blog post is different and as you read it, you will understand why. I'm very privileged in this life here in the Rocky Mountains to be a teacher at a wonderful school just ten miles up the road from our home in Montrose. Every day 18 of the most wonderful kids that you could ever imagine walk into the door of our classroom and call me their teacher. I have shared my blog with them at various times throughout the school year as I've tried to guide them through the writing process. It's fun to watch their faces as they have listened to me read to them from it as well as their excitement in determining any errors I might have made :) One little girl in particular is a steady reader of it and today's blog post is written for her. I thank God each day for the blessing of being a teacher. It's the finest and most honorable of vocations that I could ever have known.

Dear Marissa,

     It's the weekend little one and I hope that you are enjoying it just like any 9 or 10-year old kid should. Mr. Renfro and I have been very busy around here doing the kinds of chores that grownups get to do, you know things like laundry, housecleaning and paying the bills. May I give you a word of advice my young friend? Don't be in a hurry to grow up too soon, EVER. In fact, plan on being a kid at heart all of your life. It really works out better for you that way.

     I suspect that you are a little surprised to be reading this and to learn that you are the subject of this blog post. But I thought about this a lot before I actually wrote it and it truly seemed the right thing to do. Sometimes in the "blink of an eye" the inspiration for what to write about comes to me. Yesterday for some reason it was you I thought of and thus, well thus the impetus for writing a blog post called "Dear Marissa," I hope that you like to read it.

     I think that you may be among my youngest of readers and it always makes me happy when you come up to me at school and tell me quietly, "I read your blog last night Mrs. Renfro." At first, I just figured that you'd read it a time or two and then be finished yet that is definitely not the case. You are what I like to refer to as a "voracious" reader of the printed word and it's not just this blog but lots of other printed texts that you seem to constantly have in front of you. I like to see that and I encourage you always to keep reading, whatever it is that you should enjoy. The saying that "knowledge is power" is indeed true and it would seem to me that there is no better time to figure that out than when you are young, "fourth-grade young".

     I had to smile in my heart just a few days ago when you came up to me and said, "Mrs. Renfro, I found a mistake in your blog last night." For just a teeny moment in time, I was a bit worried. "Holy cow!" I thought to myself. "What did I leave out?" And then you told me. Remember that you thought that I had spelled the word 'lo' incorrectly? I knew exactly what you were referring to and after I explained it, well now you know that when you say something like "lo and behold" that's how you spell it. You've got a great eye for editing it would seem young lady. That makes me happy.

     I'm surely pleased with your writing and have seen lots of improvements in it as the year has gone by. Lately I've noticed that you are adding in more detail and that you are not satisfied with just doing the bare minimum. Don't be afraid to try different ways to say something as you write. Once a few weeks back, you came to me with a quizzical look on your face and asked me why I used the phrase, "Save for Sally the dog, I was the only one awake." THAT was a great question and I explained to you that I wasn't out to "save" Sally from anything and that it was just another way to say "except for Sally the dog". You are growing and changing in the way you write and some day in the future I suspect I shall see some of your words printed in some place very special. I'm counting on that.

     I'm glad that I have shared this blog with you and all of the other kids in our great 4th grade class. It's been fun to guide you all in the writing process this year and to turn you loose to write on your own. All 18 of you have made great strides this year and that makes this teacher's heart most happy. Please remember what I've always told you kids about this blog. I am most careful about what I write so as not to include anything that would be of embarrassment (ok,ok save for the time I went into the boy's bathroom by mistake one day) to our classroom, our school or our community. I choose wisely the things that I write about because once the "publish" button is pushed, I cannot take back anything that I wrote. Sharing a few of my blog posts from time to time has been a great way to teach the kids in our room about writing. My lesson to you all has forever been that writing can be a lot of fun if you allow it to be. I figure that the best way to show you is by my own example.

     We've been studying all year long how the use of text features help us to understand non-fiction text. In this blog I often include photos/captions to help my readers understand what it is that I am referencing. I went back in my blog posts and picked out five of my favorite photos that I've used over the past 3 years and am including them at the bottom of this one. I hope that you enjoy looking at them.

     Well young lady, it's time for me to go now. I am so glad that I came to teach at Olathe Elementary and to meet you and your 17 classmates. That we all should be together this year is not by chance and I remember that each and every day. You are part of "the 18", a group of kids that I love so very much. See you soon Marissa!

     Most sincerely,

     Mrs. Renfro