‘Every story is important. Every single one.”

When middle school teacher Matt Eicheldinger had a student who wouldn’t speak at all, he decided to leave her a sticky note on her desk everyday, each one with a funny cartoon or encouraging messages. Years later, she returned to share she had saved every sticky note he had left to encourage her, leaving Eicheldinger to wonder what other extraordinary moments he missed from seemingly ordinary interactions.

Luckily, he had a way to revisit them all. For the past fifteen years, Eicheldinger has written down moments like this from his classroom, capturing literally hundreds of daily interactions between himself, students, and families.

Sticky Notes offers readers a chance to experience one hundred of these stories that capture friendship, grief, joy, and so much more. Although each story can stand on its own, Eicheldinger offers a new perspective that will help you understand what he has grown to learn over the years: there is always a greater message within the story, we just need to be ready to see it.

“In a world where everyone offers an opinion, Matt offers us his stories grounded in the reality of classroom work while teaching us the power of searching for meaning in those small, ever day interactions. These stories made me laugh, made me cry, and connected me to some of the most important work I’ve ever done: being a teacher.”

-Rebecka Peterson, 2023 National Teacher of the Year

“Matt has slowly built, story by story, a powerful message about the importance of small moments. These stories are a framework for teaching (and living) with compassion, with joy, with patience, with a keen eye on the impacts teachers and students have on each other when their full humanity is welcome in the classroom.

—Tom Rademacher, author of It Won't Be Easy: An Exceedingly Honest (and slightly unprofessional) Love Letter to Teaching; 2014 Minnesota Teacher of the Year