A Letter to My Students,

As I sit here this weekend reflecting on the past week, the stress level high, the work non-existent in many cases, and my thoughts wondering to "how I am failing you as your teacher" more than once, I wonder how I got to this place? I know in my heart that part of it is me, I want to give you every opportunity to finish your exploration. I trust in you, maybe too much. I keep telling you about how important deadlines are, yet I keep moving them back so that you can squeeze every ounce of creativity out of your heart and head. You are getting mixed signals from me, and for that I apologize.

However, if you notice, I said that PART of this is me, the other HALF is you, while I give you a few inches, you have learned who I am well and have taken a very long mile. You have understood that I may not ask for things the day I say they are due, or that the kiln may not be loaded and fired the day I say it will be, and have decided that these things play into your procrastination plans well. To this I say, you need to rethink the relationship you are forging. You may only have me for a semester but there may also come a time that you need to call on our relationship for your future. I would like to oblige by writing in a glowing manner about the quality of your tenure as a student in my class.

Understand that I assign you things for the sake of you learning the media that YOU have asked to learn. I want you to be excited, to understand that things don't always seem useful or logical, but often things that you learn in life have a way of resurfacing when you need them most. There is this thing about coming full circle that happens, OFTEN.

I do not assign things for the sake of assigning work. Each item is part of the process of learning the material, each item is practice for the BIG dance, and most importantly, each assignment, while graded objectively, is not assigned for the sake of a number. What its worth to you is much more than a grade, you'll see, eventually.

I write this before I sit down to finish up my grades as a means of clearing the air. Please feel free to e-mail me, leave a message on the class page on Facebook, or a message on my wall if you have any questions. You can even comment on this note. If I see it, I will answer as fast as I can, with some thought of course.

A special note to my Seniors, I know that its that time of year when you have decided that you are so done with school. I hope that you know that as hard as it is to focus on things right now it is still very important not to give up the game before the final buzzer sounds. You have 10 weeks left, one more quarter, don't fumble things now.

Have a great weekend, see you Monday!