Dear Science 24 Students,

I love you. I really do love having each and every one of you in my class. I am sorry if I do not always show it. I am sorry if I get strick and stern on a daily basis, but please remember that I am fun on a daily basis, too. Sometimes I feel that I need to enforce strick rules in order for you to have the best learning environment possible. That doesn't mean that I don't care about you; just the opposite. I'm strict because I care. I follow through with consequences to your actions because I want you to learn how to behave as responsible young adults.  

If you do not know already, I lose sleep over you because I'm so concerned about your well-being. I dedicate hours to planning, organizing, setting up, and taking down the hands-on activities and labs we do in class. I know that each of you learns differently and so I try my hardest to ensure that I give you every opportunity to understand the content.

I make you sit quietly when someone is talking or reading aloud because other students in the class cannot focus when there are whispers to distract them. I make you put away your phones because I want you to focus on your learning. I constantly remind you about respect so that you can graduate from our high school with the attributes of rigor, relevance, and relationships.

I know that you will never read this, and yet I will post it online anyway. Perhaps one day you will realize that when I said I was proud of you, I really meant it. My only hope for you is everything. I only hope that you receive everything good in life. I only hope that you find enormous success. I only hope that you realize the happiness of existence. That is all I wish for you: the best. If I have helped you in any way on that path, then I have done my job. 

I'll say it one more time: to all of my students,

I love you.

Mrs. Martin