The Adventures of a First Year Middle School Teacher

The Timing of Things

Sandra woke up for another bright and busy day for school to a text message from Nick that read:

Nick: Hey, about yesterday. I am sorry I was not there. I hope you are not mad at me. 

She was not sure as to how to reply to that because she did not know if she was upset or just hurt that he had forgotten and not had not been celebrating her sister's birthday with her and her family which she had invited him to. Every time that he invited her to his family's for a birthday or some type of celebration she was there. Unsure as to what to say, she did not reply back and instead got ready for work. 

It took Sandra precisely thirty minutes to make one hundred and fifty copies for the day's assignment the day before. She was glad that she did not have much to do that morning to get ready for the day, so she decided to try and find Mr. Delaney again and let him know about needing a new projector. She hoped that she would find him as she could not do much without it. 

Walking towards his office, she saw Mrs. Toney, who was standing in front of her door and which sat across from the principal's office, and greeted her good morning. Mrs. Stanley asked how she was doing and how classes were going. Sandra told her that it was doing well and that the students were behaving so far and did not know when that was subject to change. Mrs. Toney said they will try to break the ice within the two to three weeks into the school year. Sandra suddenly remembered to ask Mrs. Toney about the teacher's literature manual that she had been having a hard time finding. 

- "I have been meaning to ask you. Do you by any chance know where the 7th grade teacher's manual is. I have looked all over for it in my classroom and I do not have it."

- "I believe I have it. I think I have two of them. Let me look for it. I know I have them in here somewhere. I have two just in case I teach 7th grade again." 

- "I understand." Sandra wondered why she had not moved to look for it. She guessed that maybe she meant she would look for it later  when she saw Mr. Delaney coming out of his office.

-"Mr. Delaney, Just the man I needed to speak to." It was perfect timing really. She had almost forgotten what she was there for after talking to Mrs. Stanley about the students and the classes. 

- "Mrs. Monteverde, how can I be of help?" Mr. Delaney was hoping that he would not dread the conversation that was about to take place. He never knew with teachers what the conversation could be about. 

-" I am in need of a projector. The one that I have in the classroom comes on, but it does not connect to the computer and does not what it is supposed to which is to project the things I need to project to the students." She laughed as she made that last comment. Mr. Delaney laughed with her as well. 

- "  Just do it the old way; the way that I used to do it when you were in my classroom."  He teased her and they all laughed together. Sandra wondered if he just teased her because he had been her teacher or if he did that with every one of the teachers. She was not sure yet. 

- "I have been doing that these past few days. I just thought you'd want to know that the projector in that room needs to be replaced; it would help a lot." She replied and hoped that would be the end of the teasing and would just tell her that he would order one soon. 

- " Of course we will get you one. You are actually not the only one that needs their projector replaced. Many of the teachers in this school need new projectors. We will be making that order next week. Just be patient with us please." He was serious now and hoped that his answer would satisfy her. He knew her and her sisters well and that they were passionate about things, thus said this to ease her mind. 

- "It's perfectly fine. I don't mind waiting as long as someone knows about it. Thank you by the way." She decided to take the conversation to something else. " Mrs. Toney and I were just discussing how long it takes the students to start getting comfortable with their new teachers and environment. Mrs. Toney says it takes them around three to four weeks to do so. Do you think so as well?" Mr. Delaney welcomed the need to change the conversation she had taken and quite enjoyed the fact that she had asked his opinion on that specific subject since she was a new teacher. 

-"I believe that it does take some of them that long to get used to their teachers, but it also depends on the person and the people in their class. If you get a group of kids that are all pretty quiet or serious or mature even, then they won't ever really give you much problems. If on the other hand, you get a group of students who are all very energetic and feed off one another, then normally it would take them around that much time to get used to their surroundings and their new teacher." Mr. Delaney's comment made Sandra remember something her History teacher commented one day to her group during class time. 

- "I can see that. That reminds me of something Coach Edwards told our class once and it was about the concept of maturity and responsibility in the groups of kids. He pretty much just said that our class was more mature than my sister's class, who you know was only a year ahead of me. " She noticed that he liked this topic and wondered if he would remember each class which was a long time ago. 

- "I believe that. I do not know that I can remember that far back, but I do believe it. There are groups of kids that are just more mature than others or adapt to the kids around them easily. You'll definitely have kids that are problem kids or that want to stand out or just have fun. And their kids you know. You have to let them be kids." He said with a finality that made Sandra feel that he wanted to end the conversation there. 

Sandra took the hint and excused herself to her classroom. Once she got there she decided to hang some motivational posters that she had recently bought to put on one of the walls of the classroom. As she did so, she heard someone walk in through her door. She turned and saw Mr. Buchanan walking in. This was the second time he found her on top of a desk and felt a bit embarrassed by it. 

"Hey, do you know how to put a clock that tells the time on your smart phone?" He walked in and stood below her. Getting a pretty good view of her toned body which  she had because she worked out for an hour every day for six days a week lifting weights and working out every inch of her body. She came down as soon as he started to make his way towards her. 

She did not know if she wanted his help coming down as he had before. She still remembered how it felt against hers and how much she wanted to leave it there. The thought of it brought back the sensation and feeling that it gave her to hold his hand, but she knew that she should not. What would Nick think? And why did she not feel the same way when she held Nick's hand? Her brain had been going a hundred miles per second as she got off the table and walked closer to him to see what kind of phone he had.

-"It all depends on the phone you have. An android comes with one but with I phones you have to download a clock widget that you can put on it." She was beside him and he showed her the screen of his phone as he talked. 

- "It's an I phone. Where do you get these widgets, on the APP store?" They were only a few inches away from one another and she looked into his mesmerizing baby blue eyes that looked back at her eagerly.  She could not help but give him a slight smirk.

- "I would assume so, but I am not sure because I have an Android and I am vaguely familiar with I phones. And the reason for that is cause all of my sisters have I phones." She was speaking matter of fact so as to keep herself in check under his gaze which did not feel intimidating or  forceful. It was the opposite. It was gentle and welcoming. 

The bell rang for the students to head to class. They looked at each other and smiled. They did not want to leave for fear of not being able to see each other again that day. She said that she would help him figure it out as soon as they had a chance. He walked out of the classroom and was proud of himself for getting her to commit an hour or so with him. 

Sandra spent the rest of the day teaching and putting kids with partners to complete their work. She walked around the class to check their work and listen to the conversations they were having. Most of the kids were working together and talking only about the assignment. She had to get stop a few of them from talking about other things that did not pertain to the classroom. It was a fruitful day in the classroom for Mrs. Monteverde and enjoyed her morning with Mr. Buchanan since they did not get to see each other again for the rest of the day as they both had hoped.  

When she went to bed, she wondered when she would get the projector and then wondered if they would hook it up as soon as she got it. She was desirous to start using it and facilitate learning. She did not mind writing on the board, but she knew how much easier it was to present material and demonstrate how to complete the activity sheets she had using an overhead. She fell asleep thinking about it.