Today I walked into the exact classroom I want to teach in. I had to do a classroom observation for my Teaching Reading to Students class. I went to a local school and was in a first grade classroom. The class was so amazing. The walls were covered with posters, charts, standards, rules, etc. I don’t think there was a single space free. As we education majors say, it was a print rich environment. There was large carpet space with a rocking chair and a cushioned yellow chair for the teacher. The desks were collaborated into clusters of fours and on one side of the room by the window there was a large yellow couch. The teacher had an antique pink chair accompanying her metal school issued desk. But her desk was decorated just as elegantly as her chair. She had a pink and green lamp and a vase of yellow dandelions. Above her desk were three large pink picture boards where she put pictures that students had given her and some pictures of her own up.

When the teacher started instruction the class was so attentive even with the added distraction of having a stranger in the room. They all were excited about what they were learning and asked questions and made comments about the whale book they were reading aloud. The children were sent to go do some small group work while the teacher worked with a special group of students on their reading. After a while, the teacher left the group with another lady who came in and went around to look at the progress the groups were making. She curled up on the floor with the students and looked at their projects. She laughed and made jokes with them. It was so obvious how much she loved her students.

Oh my goodness guys sometimes I can not wait to be a teacher! I mean most of the time it just freaks me out, but then there are the times when I’m just so excited about it. Only a year left before that will be me in the room teaching a group of my own 25 students. Ahh! I have so much to learn before then!