Dear Parents,
The first week of August is a mix of feelings for you: sadness that another summer with your kids is over, relief to not have to find creative ways to entertain them while it’s a thousand degrees outside, anxiety that you’re entering a 10-month stretch of time when your kids spend more time with their teachers and classmates than with you. As you’re preparing to send your kids off to school, just know that their teacher is ready and waiting for them.
First, thank you for trusting me with your baby. Regardless of how old your child is, I know sending them off to be cared for by others is never easy. Thank you for allowing me to get to know your son/daughter, for encouraging them to let me know them, and for trusting me to learn who your child truly is and not whatever facade they may try to present at first. Opening your heart to allow someone to see your child the way you do isn’t easy – I know that as a parent myself- so know that the bigness of that is never lost on me as a teacher. So I have a few promises for you as we start this new school year.
I promise your child will be cared for and loved. When a student is on my roster, my priority is to make sure that every single day in my classroom is a day without concern about whether someone cares. You child will be smiled at, talked to, celebrated, and supported. From day one, you can trust that I will make sure your child knows that I care and that there will always be a listening ear, a word of encouragement, or a cheerleader waiting for them. I will tell them I love them and make sure they believe it.
I promise to help your child learn. I will work hard to plan lessons that are fun and challenging even though they won’t always want to be challenged. I promise they will leave my class understanding when we can be our own teachers and when someone else’s knowledge is our biggest blessing. I will help them learn how to ask questions and find the answers. I will try to make them excited about learning.
I promise your child will feel seen. I will quickly learn their passions and notice when they are excited. I will notice when they are not themselves and learn when to ask questions and when to just remind them that I’m there if they need me. I will notice when their academic performance declines and will try my best to help. I will also notice when they go beyond their usual and will celebrate that. Your child will know someone noticed their absence and will always know their presence is valued.
I promise your child will matter. At the end of the year, I will look back on an experience with your child and remember what he/she brought to the classroom. I will remember the conversations we had and not the answers he/she put on a test. I will not remember the grade your child earned on a paper years from now, but I will remember how your child grew throughout the year and how I grew as a teacher because of him/her. I will see him/her as a person and not a name in my gradebook. I will consider your child my “kid” from now on. I will celebrate their victories and offer support in their challenges. I will brag on them as they grow up and follow their passions.
Lastly, I promise to try to keep your child safe. I will treat them as my own. I will make sure to the best of my ability that they leave me in one piece and know how important it is to see them again the next day. It’s not easy trusting a stranger with the most important piece of your heart, but I promise to protect it.
I know these are big promises – bold promises to make before even meeting you or your child. But as a parent, I know the feeling of dropping my babies off at school and hoping strangers will care for my kids the way I care for them and love them the way the need to be loved. So I will give all that I have to follow through on these promises. Hopefully that makes starting a new school year a little easier for both you and your baby.
Sincerely,
Your child’s teacher
