I decided I was going to be a teacher when I was in the second grade. At the time I believed that meant I would wear turtleneck sweaters and have blonde hair that was flipped up at the bottom like my teacher. Of course, I knew I had a lot to learn before I would be ready to teach. I can think of one lesson I was very slow in learning, even though all those years, it was right in front of my face.

All through elementary and middle school, I glanced, gazed, and even stared at some of the most powerful teaching props in existence, the walls. But I didn’t really see them because to students, it is as natural to find something useful on a classroom wall as it is to glance at the wall in the first place. As a teacher, when I first walked into my own middle school classroom and had to decide what to put on my walls, I was baffled. In a way, they were still invisible to me.

I started out with a small library on an old metal bookshelf, a couple of inspiring posters, and some class rules, then quickly added my state’s content standards and a corner for publishing student work. I added multiplication tables, math facts, and writing conventions. I made room for a student-created vocabulary wall.

By mid-year, my students had helped me redecorate. By this point, I saw my walls as some of the most important learning tools I would ever have access to. I began to think back to the many classrooms I had been in as a student teacher and observer. I started to mentally categorize the purposes I had seen classroom walls fill:

Organization—posted agendas, calendars, standards, and bookcases

Resources/Reminders—vocabulary walls, math charts, homework assignments, procedures posters, and class expectations

Recognition—homework, student artwork, and student illustrations of vocabulary words

Physical Props—scenery for readers’ theater, games like “pin the math term on the example,” and often a whiteboard or interactive whiteboard

Community Building—a birthday calendar, getting to know you projects, and both commercial and student-created decorations

The greatest part in my eyes was how involved my students were. They were interacting with their physical space in ways that helped them learn and feel recognized. And it was often my more disruptive students who would jump at the chance to hang out after school and help me add something to the classroom walls. As we’d work, they would talk and I would listen. My classroom walls helped me connect with my students and helped them develop a sense of ownership.

What about you? What do you think it is most important for teachers to have on their walls? What would you add to my list?

“Thank you, Mrs. Russsssimah!” You gotta love it when kids shout out your name, even if it is pronounced incorrectly. It’s been days, and I still mentally revisit my Friday afternoon and smile. And who wouldn’t when that Friday includes reading a story to a thoughtful, energetic, keep-you-on-your-toes batch of giggly second-graders?

I had the absolute pleasure of being a guest reader for Mrs. F’s class at Robert C. Fisler School. If you’ve never heard of this school, do yourself a favor and Google it. It’s modern, tech-focused, diverse, and, well, beautiful.

Mrs. F is the kind of teacher we all wanted in second grade (or any grade, for that matter). She is bubbly, full of ideas, witty, and has passion for what she does. She creates Promethean flipcharts from which students learn lessons, she invites guests to her classroom to help with student art projects, and she plays games with her class.

On the particular day I was there, she played 20 questions with her students. The class can ask 20 questions in order to figure out who the mystery guest reader is. Once all the questions are asked, the reader can enter the room and the storytelling can commence!

The storytelling did commence—with Chris Van Allsburg’s Jumanji. Being a huge fan of Van Allsburg, I couldn’t help but pick one of his masterpieces. And lucky for me, they enjoyed the storyline, as well as the vivid, realistic pictures. Admittedly, Mrs. F and I were concerned that the reading level might be too advanced, but this wasn’t the case. Here and there, I defined or explained various words. And they, too, asked questions. Together, we “oohed” and “awed” over the game’s twists, turns, and characters, which include a fierce lion, a curious collection of monkeys, and a slithering python. One student asked, “Why does the python match the furniture?” And another student promptly piped up with, “He has camouflage!” Talk about insightfulness and intelligence—and, remember, these are second-graders!

We wrapped up the reading with some final questions: Why is it bad that the boys took the game? (They don’t read instructions.) What will happen as a result of them not reading the instructions? (They won’t know to finish the game.) So what will stay in the house? (The monkeys! The lion! The lost guide! The python! The rhinos! The rain!) It was great fun, to say the least.

But aside from the fun, laughs, and all-around surprise from this experience, I learned a very valuable lesson: Don’t ever underestimate students, not even for a second—because the moment you do, you’ll find yourself absolutely dumbfounded. Students are more thoughtful, perceptive, and clever than ever before.

As teachers, maybe this is something you’ve already learned. Maybe it’s an idea you mastered years ago and now consider it to be “the norm.” But for someone who is currently out of the classroom, it was quite a shocker. It was also a real moment of pride. To be able to witness excitement in students’ eyes and to be able to see the passion that drives a good teacher—well, it’s no wonder I had such an amazing day, now is it?