An Open Letter to My Teacher

Dear Teacher,
I am your student. I was enrolled in your school and assigned to your class, and tonight, I am super excited about seeing you and meeting my soon to be new friends in the morning! I am feeling nervous, excited and other feelings which are new to me, because I am not sure what will happen when I get to school and your classroom tomorrow.

My parents and their friends have been telling me that I am supposed to "mind" you - not sure what they mean by that, but I know that I want to please you so you will like me. Sometimes, my family gets really excited when I do something great, and sometimes, they get really mad at me when I don't do whatever it was they thought I should do or told me to do, and I don't like how that makes me feel. I wonder - what will you think of me?

I like lots of things...I like playing outside and watching TV and I like when people read stories to me. I know how to do things I have already learned, but I don't know what you want me to learn in your class. So, please tell me! Tell me what we are doing and how we are doing it, and I will try my hardest to make it happen. I really like doing things with my friends and touching everything as I go along, so make sure that you think up really cool games for us to play - we probably will learn something, but we won't even notice because we will be so busy talking and laughing about it all.

Oh, and I might miss my family, especially the first day. But don't worry, you can make that ok by showing me you love me, even if you just met me! I might not be clean or have new clothes or any school supplies, but I want to be loved just like you do. I promise to love you back even more than you can imagine. Please find out what makes me different from everyone else, but I want to believe that you love me more than the rest, just like my family (even if you really love us all the same...that is a grown up thing, not really the way a kid like me thinks!).

I feel pretty small around grownups, and sometimes, grownups don't treat me well at home. I wonder how you will treat me? Will you be yelling? Will you be listening if I have a problem? Will you make me feel like I can be anything when I grow up, or will you make me feel like I can't do anything right at all? How you make me feel....will be the number one reason I learn in your classroom.

But don't worry, I'll give you lots of chances to love me. I'll probably give you lots of reasons to be frustrated too, but not on purpose. I want you to love me, even if I am not sure what that means for you and me.

We are getting ready to spend a lot of time together and I hope all the time we spend will be as fun for you as it will be for me if you know what you are doing here. I am counting on it, because this school year might be the one that makes all the difference for me.

I think I love you already,
Love,
Your (favorite) Student in your whole class!