My Ideal Classroom

My ideal class would be preschoolers, early preschoolers, like 3 years old; I love that age. I wouldn't have too many students – just enough to keep me busy, maybe 5 or 6. I wouldn't care if they weren't all on the same level because with a group that small I would be able to give them plenty of one-on-one attention and I like to watch the progress the kids' make so the more room there is to grow the better. They would have all different personalities – some shy, some loud, some calm, some crazy. I like variety; it's the spice of life. All the parents of the children would want to be involved and would come volunteer in the classroom and donate toys, books, and snacks for the children. All the parents and I would have a close relationship and the parents would be friends with each other as well.

My ideal classroom would be plenty big, with tons of storage space because I don't like a lot of clutter – a creative mess is totally acceptable but I don't like unnecessary clutter. Closets, cupboards, cabinets – the works. Kind of a silly thing to be considered in an "ideal classroom" but I've been in a couple different classrooms and I've noticed that the amount of storage space available makes a huge difference in the overall feel of the classroom. My ideal classroom would be in my home – a big walkout basement that would work for my preschool and also a place for my own children to play or hang out in. That way I could do whatever I wanted with it. I would have to provide more for it if it wasn't part of a program, but at least I could paint the walls if I wanted to. It would also have to have a decent backyard. Hopefully it would be big enough to have a play set with a slide and swings and such and still have enough room to run around.

If I did a preschool out of my home I wouldn't really have colleagues. If I wanted a bigger class then I might have a teacher's aid, but honestly I prefer to do things by myself; I can be very particular about how things are done. If I had an aid they would have to be kind of like me in order to get along and to do things how I like them done. I would maybe look for a girl right out of high school who had an open schedule and that I could pay minimally–I would still need to have a productive business. The business side of my preschool would be run by me and my husband (to be for now) who is a business major.

The content I would teach would be very basic; it would have to be appropriate for a 3 year old. We would learn about the alphabet and numbers of course. We would learn about everyday things like different kinds of stores and emergency vehicles and different jobs and careers people have. We would also learn about manners and appropriate ways to behave. Just all sorts of stuff. We would also have a lot of large motor activities since I would be teaching 3 year olds; there would be lots of transitions to get their "wiggles" out.

I'm not exactly sure what technology I would use. I don't think a lot is needed for that young of an age; I think it's better to be simple in the way you present things for preschoolers. I would definitely use a cd player or mp3 player for singing songs, I would steer away from using TV, I don't think I would need a projector for anything either. I would have a blog for my preschool that the parents could follow and see what we did in class and of course I'd have a computer to make visual aids and such but the computer would be for my use, not the kids'.

My goal as an early preschool teacher is to give kids a jumpstart on their education. I want them to be successful as they go on maybe to another preschool or to kindergarten. I want them to learn to love school so they will continue to love it throughout their school years. I want them to know that learning can be fun and that it should be. I want to have a preschool that kids get excited about, that they look forward to coming to.