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“That’s not how you pronounce Uranus, Stephan.” I said politely to my student.
He snickered with his classmates because that’s what preteens did at this age.
I was determined to get through this lesson about the solar system without losing my mind but the students were already in full blown weekend mode.
It was Friday and we were close to the end of the year and exams would be starting soon so I was just reviewing lessons.
“Let’s get back to what we were discussing in class. Now which planet comes next?” I asked my class.
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The end of the day came with the bell and my last class hurried out and headed to their lockers.
I stayed in my classroom and started to tidy up all the papers that I had to grade and get the chairs under the desk neatly.
Luckily I was a very organized teacher and had been enjoying teaching middle schoolers but they were at times snarky and confusing but overall I had a great classes.
I taught science for sixth graders and I tried my best to make it entertaining. They did complain when I gave them projects but it was better than writing answers to questions all the time.
Hands on projects, I thought were more useful and made the subjects more three dimensional.
While I was packing up my backpack for the weekend, there was a knock at my door.
“Hi, Daniel”
I looked over and there was my reason for not quitting my job.
“Hey Caz, what are you doing here? I was on my way home to see you.”
“I came by and thought we could walk home together. It is such a nice day and I know you didn’t drive because you said you needed the fresh air to clear your mind this morning before the students arrived. So here I am.”
“You are a lovely person, you know that right?” I said walking over to Caz and giving her a hug and I very quickly kissed her temple.
“Shall we?” Caz said, reaching for my hand. I let her take it and we headed out of the building towards our townhome.
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The following Monday my students were all quiet and tired from their weekends. That made my day a bit more bearable and I could usually coax them out of their tiredness by playing a game on my smartboard where they had to come up as a team to choose the correct answer.
I randomly chose the teams if they were having hard times figuring who wanted to be on their teams and there were times I let them decide.
I tried to be as fair of a teacher as possible but still with discipline.
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Finally it was time for finals and I told them all to do their best and I had confidence in each and everyone of them to do fabulous on the test.
They groaned and complained but I knew I had taught them well and they would all be successful and do their best.
That was all that mattered in my class.
As well as have some fun along the way.