“Hello class. My name is Miss Larkin and I’m going to be your teacher today,” the five-year old fantasizer fluttered to her stuffed friends. The day I found an old whiteboard in my basement was the day my imagination ran wild. To adults it may have only looked like chicken scratch, but to me it was my aspiration dancing across the board and throughout my imagination. I continued to prance around my room addressing myself as Miss Larkin and eventually upgraded my classmates from lifeless animals to family members. My penmanship had to be just perfect, dotted with a heart on the i. The feeling of having a red pen in my hand sent chills down my spine as I continued to grade the papers of my students.

Teachers are protagonists in my eyes; they are all unique people with different methods I will learn to use and incorporate in my “classroom” teachings. I have had teachers who were experienced and inexperienced and young and old. Each one added to or subtracted from my formula for being a great teacher. Everyday after school I would rush back home to brush up my skills, create encouraging posters made of sticky notes that I scattered throughout my room, perfect my penmanship and grade more important papers.

Everyday was an accomplishment when I learned something new. As a very talented and mature ten-year old, I discovered how my love for children and ambition to learn could be incorporated into my life plan to be the perfect teacher. I caught myself daydreaming in school about how I would teach a class. My parents thought that I was too young to be thinking about my future and it was possible that teaching could be nothing more than a pipe dream. As appalling as this sounded, I made a promise to myself my dream to teach would be much more than child’s play. I would prove to all of them that teaching would never be temporary.

“Hello everyone! My name is Miss Larkin and I’m going to be your teacher’s aide for this year.” I smiled at the fifth grade class. I sat down at the small desk scanning the room of hard-working students. Volunteering at the Mason Intermediate School was the highlight of my early release days. I learned teaching methods through my own personal experience, and how I had the chance to apply them. Knowing that I was the one who could determine a child’s future, influence and impact his or her life helped my dream become a reality. Nothing is more satisfying than helping out young children to brighten their lives and impact their futures. I smiled again at the class as I continued to grade their papers with a bright red pen.