From your teacher: the letter back
For the teacher, counselor, or para who received a welcome letter, or wishes they had. The families say welcome letters have no rule about traveling one direction; this one travels back, and two sentences of it is plenty.
Fill in the blanks, cut what isn’t true of you, and send it the first week. Print two copies: one for the desk, one folded for the chair beside your child.
Dear family,
Thank you for the letter. It reached me before anything was needed, which is rarer than you may know, and it has a place in my desk that the forms never get.
A little of what I’m aiming at this year, so you know the room your student sits in: . The thing I care most about getting right for this class: .
What helps on a rough day in our room, so you have my version too: . And one thing I’ve already noticed about that no roster would have told me: .
How to reach me so it works: , and the honest truth about when I answer: . Small things early, in both directions; I meant it when I read it, and I mean it now.
Have a good year at your table. I’ll hold up my end at mine.
With thanks for the company this year,
For the refrigerator: the short version
Your teacher this year: · reach me at , best around · this year our room is aiming at · your student already shows · small things early, in both directions; I read what you send, and I write back.
The test, from the other chair: a family that sends a letter expecting nothing back has already changed the year. A teacher who answers has changed it twice. Two sentences of this will be read aloud at a kitchen table, and in some homes in two languages.