It’s been almost 2 years since I stepped out of my roll as a 4th grade teacher.

For some reason, this past week, I’ve done a lot of remembering about those four years.

August 1, 2003, was a big day for me. I took my last final ever at college, graduated from college that night with a Bachelor’s degree in Education AND it was my first official day as an employee of the public school I taught at for four years.

As I stepped foot in my classroom that day, I certainly was not entering unknown territory.

My friend, Angele (who is actually more like a big sister to me), had already been teaching a number of years at the school when I started teaching there in 2003. And even before I knew I wanted to be a teacher I would “skip” school in high school to go volunteer in her classroom. I LOVED those days. To this day, my fondest memories of that elementary school are the days I would go volunteer in Angele’s classroom.

When I entered college and began taking education classes I continued to volunteer in Angele’s classroom every chance I got.

I would sometimes just sit there and to anyone who walked in it would probably have appeared that I was doing nothing. But what they would not have realized is that I was sitting there like a sponge soaking in everything I possibly could.

Those days I spent in Angele’s classroom taught me more about teaching than sitting in any education course I took at the university. I learned how to be an excellent teacher by watching and observing an excellent teacher.

When it came time for my student teaching semester, I was placed in Angele’s 3rd grade classroom, which was a dream come true for me!

What a time of growth that was for me! It was my first opportunity to apply in a real life classroom all the things I had learned from observing Angele in action day after day.

As it turns out, before my student teaching semester ended, the principal of the school at that time, hired me as a 4th grade teacher for the coming school year.

And best of all? The principal had decided Angele’s 3rd grade class would stay together as a class and be my 4th grade class come fall! That group of about 20 kids will always be very special to me. Not only were they my “intern” students, but they were my very first class.

This picture was taken on the day I told Angele’s 3rd grade students I would be their 4th grade teacher!

Here are my “intern” students who became my very first class! It is hard to believe these little kiddos are now in high school (9th grade)!

- Elaine