The Gift I Want to Give

 If I could give one gift to my students, it would be this:

 I wish my students would become life long learners and find joy and curiosity in learning. 

 I would want them to to look at a bubble and wonder why it pops.  Examine a beetle and wonder how it flies. Find a book and get lost in the pages of Hogwarts or Narnia or the wild west.  Look at a pattern in behavior (or drawing or number sequence) and find the relationship behind the pattern and make a conjecture as to why it occurs.

I want my students to study how apps are built and how coding in a computer makes lights shoot up on the screen.  They should discover what creatures live in the depths of the ocean or write a play for all of us to watch and cry at or fall in love. 

If my students really and truly love to learn, then grades won't matter and achievement will become a result rather than a goal.  They will find the joy in the process, and grades would just be a biproduct.

 My students would get good grades and achievements, but not because they covet them or they want to please their mom/dad, but because they loved the content and love to think.