~a letter to the children~

Today is the first day of my 40th year of being a teacher.  As I read those words, I can hardly imagine it to be true and wonder as always where the years have gone.  This year I am so blessed to be a part of the staff at Grandfield Elementary School, in a small Oklahoma town not unlike the one I grew up in back home in Kansas.  Last night at our "meet the teacher" activity, I met nearly all of the students and their parents.  They are all good folks, kind and most willing to help me and the kids in any way that they can.  As my good friend Joe once told us during a staff meeting back at Olathe Elementary in Colorado, "They send us their best each and every day."  This morning I will introduce the kids to my blog and read to them their first day of school letter from me.  I can't wait to get this started!

Being a teacher is an honorable and very noble profession.  I'm glad I listened to His calling.  This is truly the mission field.

Dear boys and girls,

     It's early in the morning as I write this letter to you.  As a matter of fact, the clock doesn't even say 4:30 a.m. yet.  I imagine that you are all still snuggled in bed, sound asleep as you dream of the day ahead of you.  I always wake up early, especially so on the first day of school.  I'm anxious to get there and start my day with you all.  It's going to be a great year.  I promise!

     Did you know that I was a second grader once too?  Yes.  It's true!  I loved second grade because it was the first year I remember really taking off as a reader and finding a love for writing stories on my Big Chief tablet.  (I'll explain what one of those was later on.)  Our teacher's name was Irene Thompson and she was a wonderful woman.  I ate my first lemon drops in her class.  On Fridays after our spelling tests, no matter how good or bad we might have done, Mrs. Thompson would call us up to her desk to pick up our papers and reach into her bottom drawer to take out one of the sweet/sour treats.  Mrs. Thompson is no longer here, yet I still remember her kindness now well over 55 years later.

     We have so much to learn together this year as you become readers and writers!  The title "mathematician" can be put behind your name with all of the many math skills you undoubtedly will acquire.  Do you like science and social studies?  Are you curious about the world around you and how things work?  That curiosity will lead you to learn even more than you already must know!  We will draw and do art work together, make our bodies even healthier during PE time, sing a song or two together, go to the library, and a thousand other things before the year is completed.

     Yet even with all of that, there is one thing else that I wish to teach you that will be just as important.  I want to help you learn what it is to become a good person, not just for now while you are still a kid but for always.  You will probably hear me call them "life lessons", because that's truly what they are.  I want for us to learn to be kind to one another in class as well as kind to any person you would ever chance to meet.  I want for your hearts to always be "good" and to have great strength of character.  You will find out today that the only "rule" this class has to follow is one of honoring each other and sticking together.   I look forward to us doing just that!

     By the time you hear me read this letter, school will be well underway for this first day.  You may find yourself tired or hungry, missing home or even ready for a nap!  Don't worry.  Everything will be ok. We will all be here together and you know what?  I think we are going to make it just fine.

     Have a great first day of school in the second grade everyone.  I hope it is your best year EVER!

     Love,
     Mrs. Renfro

                                                     Once I was a little kid, just like you!