To my students: past, current and future,
I hope you have a lot of challenging days. Days that end in tears, days that don’t seem right, and days full of unfairness.
I wish great struggles for you. That decisions don’t come easy and that there is hard work behind each and everyone of your choices.
I want to give the gift of constant uncertainty. So that you never feel as though anything thing you do is exactly right.
I give you these hopes in earnest, knowing that you will be scared, cold, and angry some days. And still I want this for you.
I want this because you are the best people I know. You are going to always be the best people I know and the best people struggle.
You will be shaped by the challenges. You will learn to stand up in the uncertainty and your choices will be all the more yours when you have to work for them.
So, I leave you with cold, scared, and angry and I hope you will allow yourself to feel them.
Love,
Me.
a brand new line. 
A part of me wants to post this in my classroom. One struggle this late in the year is seeing students who still have a fixed mindset about math and give up when it gets hard. I don’t know if I can make a difference in the time we have left together, and it’s easy to look to next year and say I will work harder and do better. But this is a reminder for me as well–my toughest students are my greatest challenges and my greatest gifts, and I will be the best teacher I can be by sticking by them no matter what.
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