May your classroom be full, but not too full, of eager students.
May your students not be jaded.
May they have had a good night’s sleep.
May they greet you when they encounter you.
May they look you in the eye but not get in your face.
May they never say “whatever.”
May they get their work done—by themselves.
May they be fired up by sparks of interest but not by Spark Notes.
May their parents appreciate what you do for them and see you as an ally.
May you be the master, not the slave, of your classroom’s gadgets.
May your school’s and classroom’s routines serve not thwart your needs and your students’.
May your classroom’s main source of light be sunshine.
May its main source of sound be live voices.
May your bag of tricks be bottomless, and may you find no water balloons there.
May the only added value in your life be the value added to your abundantly deserved retirement accounts.
May your administrators be educators.
May they see the dangers in thoughtlessly preparing individual students for standardized tests.
May they never think that schools are a business or education a product.
May they share your horror of baloney and pink slime education.
May they back you up not cut you down.
May your school’s mission be expressible in under ten words, none of them a superlative.
May nothing in your building leak.
May your school’s IT network work.
May you possess or achieve the serenity to accept the human condition and the keenness to relish the good things you have.