Elementary School Teacher Goes Viral for Her Students’ Unconventional Seating Chart (Exclusive)

Back-to-school season can be just as exciting as it is chaotic.

While parents scramble to prepare for their child’s first day, teachers face their own maze of to-dos, such as learning their students’ names, creating a syllabus and deciding where to seat a room full of children they’ve just met.

For Kathryn Prouse, a 28-year-old elementary school teacher — who just so happens to be a Virgo with a knack for strategy and problem-solving — the answer came from a place few educators ever think to explore: astrology.

She first discovered astrology in high school through her best friend. While she never became an expert, she admits to knowing more than the average person.

“It was my second year teaching and my first year designing my own classroom —  I think at the time I was so overwhelmed [and kept thinking to myself], ‘Where do I seat them on the first day?’” Prouse tells PEOPLE exclusively. 

“I was teaching third grade at the time, and we could always get information from their second-grade teachers or look at their reading level, but I didn’t want [my seating chart] to be based on academics,” she says. 

Prouse’s priority was to avoid any child feeling labeled or purposely assigned to a table that wasn’t as academically strong. This is when she texted her best friend and suggested the idea of assigning seats based on their zodiac signs.

“My best friend was like, ‘Do it.’ So while I was sitting through a teacher training, I started looking at all of my kids’ birthdays and making a chart,” Prouse recalls. “I ended up with an Earth-sign table, a Fire-sign table, a Water-sign table and an Air-sign table.”

In astrology, each zodiac sign falls under one of four elements — Earth, Fire, Water, or Air — and each carries its own traits.

Earth signs (Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn) are grounded and reliable, Fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius) bring enthusiasm and boldness, Water signs (Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces) are sensitive and intuitive, and Air signs (Gemini, Libra, Aquarius) are curious and social.

By grouping her students according to their sign and ruling element, Prouse found a clever way to create a classroom that felt both welcoming and balanced, setting the tone for connection and community.

Above all, she wanted her students to feel seen and supported.

“I wanted to get to know them in a way, before deciding where to sit them for the rest of the year,” she says. “A lot of veteran teachers will tell you not to go off of what the previous year’s teacher tells you about a child, because you’d be approaching the student with a preconceived notion.”

Prouse noticed that her Earth-sign table was always the first to finish their assignments. Instead of staying put, these students would often move around the room, lending a hand to classmates who needed extra support.

While other kids were caught up in playground chatter, Prouse remembers one student who was already working well above grade level. She preferred to be left alone with a book and often grew frustrated by what she considered “childish behavior.”

“She was only eight or nine at the time,” Prouse says with a laugh. “And of course, she was a Virgo.”

“We did table points, and the Earth-sign table got so many, they were just light years ahead of every other table,” she recalls. “All the kids were like, ‘This isn’t fair. What do they have that we don’t?’ They couldn’t figure it out.”

“So then the Water-sign table I put next to the calm corner,” Prouse says. “Again, they’re third graders so they’re only eight years old. A lot of that group was the ones crying because they missed mom or their tummy hurt.”

As for the Fire-sign table, this was the group that kept things entertaining, to say the least.

“They were tough. The Fire-sign table fought with each other a lot. They have big personalities,” Prouse explains. “They’d get into fights, but then if I tried to separate them, they’d be like, ‘No, I love this table. What are you talking about? This is the best group I’ve ever worked with.’”

The Air-signs, you ask? Prouse referred to this group as “out to lunch.”

“I made the mistake of putting them at the back of the room,” she recalls. “I was always going over there, tapping on their desks, like, ‘Hey, come on, remember, we’re focusing up here.’”

Getting to know her students through the lens of astrology quickly proved to be more than just a seating arrangement, as it gave Prouse valuable insight into her students’ needs and personalities from the start.

“Honestly, it was such a good way to get to know them,” she says. “A week into the school year, I could already spot the criers, I knew who I needed to check in with in the morning, and I knew that Air-sign table had to be up front with me so I could redirect them regularly.”

“Honestly, it was such a good way to get to know them,” she says. “A week into the school year, I could already spot the criers, I knew who I needed to check in with in the morning, and I knew that Air-sign table had to be up front with me so I could redirect them regularly.”