Everyone should have a night like Open House. No matter what occupation, one night every year, everyone should have an opportunity like this. It’s my favorite night of the year. The energy and joy and optimism that I come home with after Open House should be bottled for all the exhausting, frustrating and maddening days that inevitably come when you are a teacher.

My room is at its finest. It’s clean and bright and colorful. Families walk in and smile. Kids come in and ask, “Can we really sit here?” referring to the under-cabinet pillow spots, or the little couch or beanbag chair. Fellow bibliophiles virtually run to the classroom library, looking over the choices, salivating at the thought of having so many at hand every day. Even the reluctant students, the ones who are only attending because their parent forced them to come meet their new teacher, smile at the candy tucked into their mailbox, or the way I conspiratorially tell them the papers are homework for the grown-ups tonight.

There are always new kids. Kids who have moved here from elsewhere, or even more commonly this year, kids who learned virtually last year and aren’t quite sure they will know anyone. New faces means I get to do introductions, which I always do quite dramatically. “Oh my gosh, Sarah, do you know Juan? No? Let me introduce you!!” After the introduction, I always excitedly proclaim, “That’s just crazy! You both have been in this room for less than five minutes and you’ve already made a new friend!?” I never want a student to feel alone and friendless. Ever.

I get to talk about books, Legos, summer vacations, siblings that I know, cousins that I don’t, pets, and everything else a new fourth grader has been dying to tell me since they first knew they’d be in my class. I get to see parents give reminder nudges about manners, reassuring support for the bashful children and calm redirection for the rambunctious ones. I learn so much in the short time families are in my room!

Tonight, a grandmother with custody wandered around my room for several moments before exclaiming to me, “I absolutely love this room!” She gushed on and on about the lights, the plants, the colors, the books…all the things I love about my classroom, too. It’s an excitement that is contagious and makes all the work, money and time that I have poured into my room seem extra significant. I love when the kids love our classroom, certainly. But when a parent or guardian is excited about it, then I’ve already put some positive points in my teaching bank with that family.

Families think Open House is about the kids. That it’s about making them comfortable with a new room, a new teacher. That getting this preview will help them transition confidently into the new school year. That’s all true, and I hope that it does provide reassurance and a spark of excitement for what lies ahead, but the truth is, Open House is the very thing I need each year to remind me of all the things I love about my chosen profession.

Open House is magical. It makes me forget, if just for one valuable night, that some of these students (or their parents) will drive me absolutely crazy. It makes me ignore how long my to-do list already is, or all the lessons I have yet to plan or the stack of stuff I crammed into a cabinet earlier in the day. It keeps me so focused on the most important part of my profession – on making kids smile, laugh and love a learning space – that I don’t have time to think about anything else. After the year we all had last year, meeting families and students in person this year was exactly what I needed to kick of the year and to begin with renewed optimism, overflowing joy and the confidence that these kids are going to show up next week as giddy and excited about our year ahead as I am. Or maybe it’s the other way around – that I am so full of joy and enthusiasm that I will be sleepless and excited next week, as though it is my first day of fourth grade. Either way, the night worked it’s magic and I find myself right where I need to be – excited and most certainly ready to begin.