We know the names of the “troublemakers” before they ever hit our classrooms. We will have to seek out the quiet and busy children so they do not get lost along the way. We can finger the class clown in the first thirty minutes and we will feel the pulse of the classroom by the end of the first week. While speaking to a group of educators and sharing tales of student antics it came as no surprise that although the decades have changed, children have not. Professional educators have not either although their tools have been transformed. Classrooms are wrapped in laminated bulletin boards, white boards have replaced chalk boards,  power points are available to  both teachers and students for presentations, textbooks are studied on lap tops, grade books are kept on computers, homework assignments are posted via web sites, parent/teacher conferences can happen through e-mail and children’s first language learned is not formal English but rather, computerese.   Yet, as early August approaches, students and teachers begin their back to school shopping. They count the days until their alarm clocks are set; they plan what they will wear on their first day and hearts flutter as they anticipate yet another school year. They are motivated and set high expectations of each other. It does seem sometimes that the more things change the more they stay the same. And in some realms of our lives, this is probably a good thing.