I Love My Classroom

I was talking with a teacher friend of mine yesterday, and we agreed that we love our classrooms. More than I love most rooms. Don't get me wrong....I will miss the summer. But today, I spent hours in my classroom -- it relaxes me. Organizing files, setting up my desk, rearranging things on my walls, making my first school-related to-do list, lining up my students' desks, researching new books to read.... (sigh)

And have I mentioned that I also have an addiction to school supplies? I love newly-sharpened pencils, multiple sizes of paper clips, a rainbow's array of EXPO markers, a full box of staples, new manila folders, fresh ball-point pens, and POST-IT notes! My mother-in-law came to visit a few years ago (she is a teacher's aide), and I still remember her bringing me a brown bag brimming with school supplies of all kinds. It made me SO happy, and Greg really didn't understand it. It's just paper and pens and stuff -- couldn't I just go to WalMart for all of that stuff? What is so special about school supplies? But even as a child, I had the same love for new school supplies. Maybe I was destined to be a teacher. I loved getting a new backpack and all of the things that would go into it -- the pencil bag, the Trapper Keeper (yes, I know I date myself), new writing utensils and erasers, markers, calculator, graph paper, a composition notebook, and of course, the first-day-of-school outfit. And then, I got to organize it just the way I wanted to. It was like Christmas. In August. Right before going back to school.

Anyway, my classroom is one of the only spaces where I feel like it is really MINE. (Of course, I'm sure my school would disagree!) I can do whatever I want to (within reason) with that space -- my own little teaching world. Such a nerd. Maybe it's that sense of getting prepared for a new adventure, even if it is in the same room. Every new school year has it's own personality. Every group of students has its own adjective. Two things I love: going on an adventure and having my own spot. Yep, I was definitely meant to be a teacher.