Reflections on Teachers and Third Grade "I can..." Math Posters

My elementary school growing up was relatively small.  At the time it did not seem like it but, now, after working in several different schools I see how quaint it truly was.  We had three teachers in each grade level and they were pretty much the exact same teachers throughout my elementary career.  My sisters and I often had the same teachers as we moved down the line.  Each time I would get a teacher that one of my sisters had I always felt like I had a little bit of an in.  Being the youngest, I always got the inside scoop before the first day.  I knew my third grade teacher had an obsession with Pee-Wee Herman, my fourth grade teacher played the guitar, and I knew that my fifth grade teacher loved the color brown.  I was, for some reason, very bothered by this.  

I love bright fun colors so I just couldn't imagine why someone would want to wear brown every day.  I mean it, it was every day.  Some days it was mixed in with shades of taupe, but there was always some element of brown. She even had brown chalk.  Sometimes I think back on my teachers and I wish I had the opportunity to go back in time to see them now as my 30+ year-old self.  I wonder if they really were that strange or if it was just my perception.  I think back on this particular teacher and I remember she had very long finger nails and she would clack them together constantly.  She always wore kaftans or knee-high boots...brown of course.  I wonder how much of it was her and how much of it was just her teaching persona.  

I had a student a few years back who would obsessively ask people what color things were.  

"Do you have a car?  What color is it?"

"Do you have a boom box?  What color is it?"

Do you have a phone?  what color is it?"

This would go on and on indefinitely.  Until one day, I told him "My favorite color is hot pink and everything I own is hot pink. Now you don't have to ask me what color anything is anymore, because everything I own is hot pink."

He sat there and thought about it for a minute and I thought this was it, I had solved the problem.  Until he said, "Do you have an exhaust on your car?  What color is it?  Hot pink?"

And that's how every question about anything I owned went for the rest of the year.

"Do you have a couch?  What color is it?  Hot pink?"

"Do you have a microwave?  What color is it?  Hot pink?"

"Do you have an x-box?  What color is it?  Hot pink?"

There is some truth to hot pink being my favorite color, I definitely gravitate towards it, however, everything I own is not hot pink.  But in his mind, he believed it, and my defining trait for him is that "everything she owns is hot pink".  I didn't stay at that school long enough for it to become part of my official persona, but whenever I choose a hot pink item for my classroom I smile and think back wondering where that kid is now.

I have found as I've gotten older that I have transitioned to liking more neutrals with pops of color.  Which brings me to my latest set of Common Core "I Can..." math posters.  I set up the design and fell in love with it and then I thought...Is it too brown?  Am I turning into my fifth grade teacher?  Have I already turned into my fifth grade teacher?  After much deliberation, I decided the answer is no.  

These colors are great and I like the soft mellow vibe.  While I love a hot color, I know that it can be a distraction for my students.  I find that minimizing bright colors and mellowing out the room helps them to focus better.  I hope others like it too!