Solo First Day on the Job (Part 1)

[Kaizer Dragos]

Summer, 12, 515

Seated behind his desk at the Alluvion Academy, Kaizer was quite excited just to be here. Up until this point most of his teaching had been private tutoring, and while he enjoyed the one-on-one approach, the chance to teach at an institution was something he simply couldn't pass up. The eighth bell had yet to even ring and Kaizer was already prepared for the day. Books and parchment were arranged neatly on the desk and now all he needed were students. The class that Kaizer was set to teach was a primary class which would be easy enough.

One of the things that Kaizer was wondering about was if he would have any problem students. Having been home schooled by his parents this type of learning was something the man had never gotten the chance to experience. Never the less he'd heard stories that some students could be problematic. Kaizer's attention was brought back to the classroom as students began walking in with their personal bags in hand. None of them were more than six years old, so this would be an interesting experience. Dealing with children at considerable length was never something Kaizer had done in the past, most of his tutoring up to this point dealt with teenagers or adults.

The classroom itself was a single large room with large windows against the back wall nearly floor to ceiling in height that provided considerable light for students to work from. The plain stone walls had several pieces of paper glued to them, all of which had high marks, and there were a number of cabinets spread throughout the room which contained materials needed for the students to do their work. It was simple, even spartan in design, but that's how Kaizer liked things. There weren't a ton of distractions or others things to keep the children from their work.

Just before eighth bell rang all fifteen of his student were seated at their desks, and aside from some light conversation no one seemed to be acting out. At the sound of the bell all fifteen students sat there looking at Kaizer. Having fifteen sets of eyes focused in one direction put him off for a moment. Regaining his wit Kaizer smiled. “Good morning class, my name is Kaizer Dragos, however you may call me Mr. Dragos. Henceforth I will be your new teacher. Now, before we begin are there any queries?”

Several children raised their hands and Kaizer pointed to a young boy. “Where did Mr. Watmer go?” the boy asked. This was a question Kaizer knew he would have to answer, and do so rather delicately. Morian Watmer, the former teacher, had died in his sleep literally the day before he applied to the academy. However, saying something like that to children this young would no doubt upset them.

“Mr. Watmer had to go on a very long trip from which he will be unable to return. Any further queries?” Kaizer said. When another child raised their hand Kaizer pointed to her.

“What's a query?” the girl asked.

“It's another word for question,” Kaizer said. Something else the man made a mental note to do was dumb down his speech. Through Kaizer preferred a more educated and elegant speech pattern, it was obvious it would confuse young children. When another boy raised his hand Kaizer pointed to him.

“What's henceforth mean?” the boy said.

“It means from now on,” Kaizer said.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

After about five minutes of various questions he did roll call and the day's lessons began. Removing a set of keys from the desk Kaizer walked over to one of the cabinets. He was about to unlocked it when all of the children got out of their seats and lined up behind him. Kaizer looked back and was a little surprised before realizing the children had likely done this with Mr. Watmer and were expecting to continue doing so. It would seem the former teacher ran a fairly tight ship and Kaizer thought to continue these habits. Keys in hand he unlocked and opened the cabinet door handing the children their math books and a vial of ink one by one. They were taken and the children returned to their desks.

Next he took out a large mug filled with quills and a stack of parchment, then walked along the row of tables and handed them out. Once everything was in order the locked the cabinet back and the children all opened their books to the same page. So as to not look like an idiot Kaizer walked by and glanced down at one of them. They were on chapter two which dealt with subtraction. All of this also seemed somewhat strange to Kaizer as he expected children this age to be rowdy, full of energy, and hard to control. It made him suspicious and wonder if something was going on, but for the time being he would just go the flow. There was a teachers copy of the math book in the desk and Kaizer took it out.

He found all the answers were supplied which was redundant, math this simple could be accomplished through mental calculations. Never the less he told the children to read the first page of the chapter and copy down the ten problems on the second page. All of the children did as instructed and Kaizer walked around the front of the desk, leaning on it slightly. With the book in hand he flipped through a few pages while casually glancing up from time to time. After about ten minutes he noticed something and looked up. One young boy was copying answers off of the girl next to him.

“Cadius, mind your eyes,” Kaizer said. The boy hung his head for a moment, then started to climb out of his chair.

“Cadius, what are you doing?” Kaizer said.

“Going to stand in the corner,” Cadius said. This was no doubt something else that Mr. Watmer did in his class, although it wasn't something he found to be useful. Kaizer didn't think the boy needed to be punished for something this small if he didn't do it again.

“Cadius, you don't have to stand in the corner, just mind your eyes,” Kaizer said.

“Yes Mr. Dragos,” Cadius said. The boy got back up in his chair and went back to working on math problems. Kaizer watched him for a moment and the boy didn't try to copy anymore answers so he went back to reading through the teacher's book. Later he noticed some of the children started to blow on their sheets of parchment to dry the ink, then turned them over. Once everyone was done they passed the pieces of parchment down and the little girl on the end got out of her seat. Walking up to the desk she held out them up to him.

Kaizer took the parchment and placed it on the desk, then was once again the center of attention for fifteen sets of eyes. This was a little disconcerting for the man as he wasn't entirely sure how to teach a classroom full of children. Many of the normal one-on-one methods he was used to didn't apply here so this was going to be an interesting day.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

Kaizer went about teaching the children basic subtraction which wasn't difficult as none of the problems involved double digit numbers. During this time he also answered questions about basic math and even helped some of the children solve a few problems without telling them the answer. Something else he noticed was that most of the class was still counting on their fingers. While this wasn't something he objected to Kaizer did encourage them to try counting without the use of fingers.

During this time he also made it a point of walking around and observing the children to see who was having problems with their mathematics work and who wasn't. For some of the children the work seemed easy while a few were having considerably more problems. It was those children that Kaizer took more of a one-on-one approach with. Instead of just making sure they were doing the work and grading the papers, he made sure the children understood what they were doing. In this regard Kaizer also ended up answering quite a few questions about a lot of thing, and had to keep them on topic.

Although he didn't mind small personal questions like if there was a Mrs. Dragos, or did he have any kids, now wasn't the time or place for that sort of thing. Their half hour of play time would come shortly after noon rest at which time he didn't mind answering questions. There was still something that troubled Kaizer about the class room. These children were too quiet and orderly, he thought for a moment about himself at this age. Such distant memories were faded and hard to recall, but he remembered being quite a handful for Heinrik.

“Is that right?” Colin said.

“Pardon?” Kaizer said, blinking a few times to clear the memories.

“My work, does it look okay?” Colin said.

“Yes, quite satisfactory,” Kaizer said, scanning the piece of parchment quickly. He didn't mind the quiet but the classroom was like teaching a bunch of mimes. Once the children were done with their work Kaizer took the sheets of parchment and added it to the growing pile on his desk. Instead of immediately adding more work for them to do, he looked over at the pile for a moment and thought that they had done enough for the time being. That in mind he started to walk out of the classroom and stopped long enough to look back.

“Feel free to talk amongst yourselves until I get back,” Kaizer said. Walking out of the classroom he continued down the hall where the door to many of the other primary classes were open and stopped to watch. The other children were more rowdy than his, but not to the point of causing trouble, at least nothing serious. A few times the teachers had to get on to some of the children to stop goofing around and pay attention. Regardless things in the other classrooms were a lot more lively than in his, which is what would have been expected.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

Something else that Kaizer noticed is a lot of the teachers were playing games with the children. Not only were they fun, they were also educational. This was something of a problem for the man as this was outside the area of his normal teaching methods. Being used to teaching teenagers and adults, it was going to be something of a challenge for Kaizer. He'd never incorporated games as a method of teaching, normally it was just straight book learning and explanations to questions about the subject matter. Children however were different, they required mental stimulation and something to focus their minds. It also made sense that something fun would be more engaging.

After returning to his own classroom Kaizer saw all fifteen children still sitting dutifully in their seats. With a shake of his head the man though that this wouldn't do at all. These were kids, they needed to have fun, have the chance to be kids. With no idea how to go about teaching with a game Kaizer realized today would likely be nothing but boring book learning, however he decided then and there to see that these children had the chance to have fun learning as well. After today he would look into different types of games and try to figure something out.

The sundial in the room was half way between the tenth and eleventh mark which meant it was time for lunch. The children always ate before resting and Kaizer called for the children to put their books away. No sooner had he done this, than a young man came into the room pushing a wooden cart filled with plates of food. For once all fifteen sets of eyes were on someone else. The young man went about passing out the food which consisted of a star fruit cut into six pieces, a cheese stick, and a glass of cold water. Now that lunch was underway Kaizer took out a small meal he'd packed which was a bit of bread and with some meat and vegetables to go with it. He also had a container of fruit juice and some slices of cheese.

The children laughed and joked amongst themselves while eating and Kaizer made his sandwich. Lunch was also a welcome relief because having missed breakfast this morning, his stomach was about to start growling over the lack of food. The man made short work of the cheese, one of his favorite foods, while casually watching the other children. Having just swallowed a mouth full of food he noticed one of the boys take a slice of fruit off the plate of a little girl and eat it.

“Mr. Dragos, Tomar just stole a piece of my fruit!” Glenda said.

“Did not!” Tomar said. Without a word Kaizer walked over to the table where the two of them were. There he took a piece of fruit off Tomar's plate and put it on Glenda's.

“One, I saw you take the piece of fruit. Two, you can spend the rest of lunch eating in the corner for lying about it,” Kaizer said, then pointed a finger toward the corner. Which a small grumble the boy took his plate over to the corner and sat down facing it.

“And that goes for the rest of you as well. Two things I will not tolerate in this classroom are lying or stealing,” Kaizer said.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

After lunch it was eleven in the morning and time for the children to rest. There was a single closet in the classroom off to the left and using the keys Kaizer unlocked the door. Inside there were fifteen small sleeping mats. Each of them had a modest amount of stuffing in them with more on one end to make for a built in pillow. Taking them out two at a time Kaizer placed the mats on the floor and went about arranging them neatly. After that the children all laid down, a few yawned, and a few others just seemed to lay there staring up at the ceiling.

Kaizer returned to his desk and took a seat, stifling a small yawn of his own. Used to the Lhavit sleeping schedule he was ready for a nap too, but being in charge of children he would have to forgo this and keep an eye on them. Thinking about that Kaizer made a mental note to take a three hour nap during the dusk and midnight rest so as to not short himself on sleep. With two hours of time to kill Kaizer decided to grade papers to pass the time. Taking one from the top of the stack he started to look it over, then stopped hearing two of the children whispering.

“It's time to rest children, not talk,” Kaizer said, raising his voice ever so lightly. The voices quickly stopped and soon there was complete silence, punctuated by a few tiny snores and the occasional nasal whistle. While teaching a classroom full of children wasn't something Kaizer was used to, he was already starting to like it. The children were well mannered, polite, and the chance to dispense knowledge to this many people at once was a welcome opportunity. While grading the papers Kaizer noticed there were two children in particular that weren't doing very well. He made another mental note to work with them more to try to alleviate that problem.

About ten papers into grading Kaizer let out a loud yawn. His body was already wanting to sleep and this change in scheduling wasn't well received. Kaizer stood from his seat and walked around the desk a little waving his arms back and forth, then stretched several times to stave off the fatigue. This is something that he would likely have to deal with for the next week. That was generally how long it took Kaizer to adjust to a new sleeping pattern. Though how someone could sleep for eight straight hours was just beyond him.

A short while later Kaizer returned to grading papers, at this point there wasn't much for him to do as all of the children were sound asleep. Half way through the stack of papers he was somewhat distant from the task at hand. Placing the quill down on the desk Kaizer tried to think about how to make learning more fun for the children. Math could be made into a game more easily, however writing would be something of a challenge. Still sitting there thinking the matter over his thoughts were eventually broken by the sound of a tiny yawn. Looking over at the sleeping mats Kaizer could see the children were starting to wake up from noon rest.
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