Noelle Bonney’s classroom bursts with color. The handprint labels in the cubbies. The posters on the wall. The rug near the window.
Room 106 at Portsmouth’s Simonsdale Elementary is ready for business.
Bonney, who has been a teacher for 10 years, can’t wait to welcome her new first grade class. Portsmouth schools start Monday, along with many other area divisions. Across Hampton Roads, teachers have been reporting to work to prepare their classrooms, complete professional development training and get ready to meet their students.
As of mid-August, there were still more than 245 teacher vacancies across the region, ranging from 10 in Hampton to 94 in Portsmouth. For the second consecutive year, Norfolk Public Schools did not respond to repeated requests for information about teacher vacancies.
In Portsmouth, Bonney was putting the final touches on her room.
“I want them to feel warm,” she said about why children’s first impression of a classroom is important. “I want them to feel like this is going to be a safe space, to feel loved and accepted and valued.”
Bonney said every new class is like a new family.
“You learn together, you laugh together, you cry together, you play together.”
And though Bonney said she loves “trinkets,” everything in her room also serves an instructional purpose.
“I tend to only use decor that I would use as a resource,” she said. “I try to limit extra stimuli.”
Across the water in Newport News, Lois Ballman also is getting her room ready at Yates Elementary, where she’s spent all 37 years of her education career.
Ballman’s room has a jungle theme. She’s got animal puppets on standby, ready to use their animal voices to read to her new kindergartners.
Her new books and new curriculum materials also are ready, but so are some of her tried and tested old-fashioned methods, such as a felt storyboard she can use to set a scene when her students need something different.
Ballman said education has gone through many changes in the nearly four decades she’s been a teacher. But some things stay the same, like the importance of making a connection with children and parents.
And no matter from what book she’s teaching, what makes the difference is the style.
“It’s in the delivery, and how you hook and engage them,” Ballman said.
Ballman and Bonney believe that young children are thirsty for true hands-on activities. They want to cut and color and experiment and feel.
These classrooms are ready for them.
Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com
