Solo First Day on the Job (Part 2)

[Kaizer Dragos]

Summer, 12, 515

Now that noon rest was over with, it was time for the children to have their half-hour of play time. This was something every child needed and Kaizer waited for them to get up and start playing. It didn't take the man long to put the sleeping mats away and once that was finished, he locked the door, turned around, and stopped mid-stride. All fifteen children were sitting at their desks talking with each other. This was totally out of sorts and Kaizer wasn't entirely sure what to make of it. The man stood there for a moment scratching his head as other children could be heard playing in their classrooms all the way in here. It was play time and they were loving it.

“Children, this is play time, what are you doing?” Kaizer said.

“Mr. Watmer normally lets up study our writing books during play time but you didn't give them out,” Claire said.

“Study books, during play time?” Kaizer said, rather surprised by the response. “Don't you children have any toys to play with?”

“Mr. Watmer said that toys were a waste of time. He took them all and locked them in a chest,” Josem said, pointing to the closet.

“That tears it,” Kaizer said. Once again unlocking the closet door he looked around for a moment spying a chest in the back that had gone unnoticed until now. It was hauled out by the side rings and Kaizer set the chest down on the floor noticing the children seemed almost excited by this. It took a few tries to figure out which key worked in the lock, but as soon as the chest opened there was a crowd around him.

“No grabbing,” Kaizer said. “Form a single file line, no shoving or fighting, take one toy a piece, and no running in the classroom.” The children quickly formed a line and started taking toys out of the chest one by one and soon they were playing just like the children in the other classrooms. Although Kaizer had yet to find any evidence that Morian had been abusive to the children, it seemed their former teacher was far too strict. It was becoming apparent that the man had a distaste for children being... children. All work and no play could not only make for grouchy students, but also poor grades.

Taking a seat at his desk Kaizer went back to grading papers while watching the children play. He smiled and thought about what it was like to be that age. Not having to worry about a job, bills, or paying for food. For a child most of their day was filled with learning, playing, and making friends. Kaizer knew that life only got harder as one grew older, so he was glad the children were able to enjoy the time they had now. None of them was causing trouble so Kaizer went back to his work, listening to the sound of them laughing and playing, being silly, goofy and simply doing the things that children normally did.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

Once playtime ended Kaizer made sure that the children all placed their toys back in the chest, that everything was accounted for, and placed it back in the closet. With that taken care of it was time to begin the children's writing portion of the daily lessons. This lesson wouldn't be overly difficult to teach because most writing was a matter of practice and memorization. That in mind Kaizer went about passing out books, parchment, ink, and vials as was done during the math portion of the day. All of the children were sitting in their seats, although now some were talking and whispering. Kaizer was glad to see them starting to loosen up a little.

“Enough talking children it's time to study,” Kaizer said. He found the easiest way to address the class like this was leaning against the front of the desk. He again glanced down at one of the books in front of the children to see what chapter they were on, one of the advantages of good vision. Like math they were on chapter two which dealt with spelling two and three letter words. This would be incredibly easy for Kaizer to do, but instead of just winging it he went by the example in the book. The task was quite simple, all the children had to do was copy down each of the words ten times.

“Alright children let's begin with page two. I want you to copy down each of these ten words ten times each. Also I want you to try to write as neatly as possible,” Kaizer said. When Claire raised her hand he point to the girl.

“Why does it matter if we write neatly or not?” Claire said. Closing the book Kaizer sat it down next to him and the desk and thought about the question before answering. That was actually a very good question and he wanted to make sure that a very good reply was given.

“The reason it's important to write neatly is so that people can understand you for one. I've seen some notes and handwriting that are very hard to read, and some that I couldn't read at all. Another reason is because some people in the world are liable to consider someone sloppy or lazy if their handwriting looks that way,” Kaizer said. Claire seemed to think about that briefly, then smiled and went about writing her spelling words. While the little girl was hard at work Kaizer watched her carefully. Unlike some of the other children, Claire seemed to genuinely enjoy the school work and was eager to do it. Kaizer thought to keep an eye on her, not for misbehaving, but as a good student.

Casually flipping through the teacher's edition of the workbook Kaizer noticed a little boy walk up out of his peripheral vision. Upon looking down he could see the child holding himself and dancing from foot to foot, something most young people called the 'pee-pee dance'.

“Mr. Dragos, I really gotta go,” Hiram said.

“So why are you telling me? Go to the bathroom,” Kaizer said.

“I'll get in trouble if I'm caught in the hall without a pass,” Hiram said. That was something that Kaizer had forgotten about. The school was particular about students wandering the halls without permission. After searching through three drawers in the desk he found a small rectangular piece of wood with the word 'pass' carved into it, below that in much smaller letters was the name Watmer. When Kaizer handed the boy the pass it was almost snatched and he took off running. While children waited so long to go to the restroom he would never understand.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

After the children finished their writing assignment Kaizer once again collected the papers, then tried to think of something else for them to do aside from more book work. The silence in the classroom was a little awkward as the children waited for their next assignment. That was when an idea occurred to Kaizer, something he'd heard about but never actually done. To make things at least somewhat more interesting he would hold a spelling bee. This would give the children something to do and help Kaizer figure out who the best spellers in class were.

“Alright children, here's what we're going to do next. I'm going to hold a small spelling bee with the following rules. I want you all to stand in your chairs and wait for me to call your name, then I will give you a word to spell,” Kaizer said. “I will allow you to miss up to one word each before you're eliminated, once that happens you will sit down in your seat. Also if you're not sure about a word you can ask me to use it in a sentence.” Once all of that was laid out the children all stood up in their seats as directed. The teacher's edition of the spelling book came in handy as it gave Kaizer a ready list of words to choose from and there were quite a few.

“What does the winner get?” Julana said. Instead of answering the question Kaizer gave her 'the look' for speaking out of turn. When Julana raised her hand he pointed to her and the question was repeated. That was a good question because Kaizer didn't have any candy or other sort of treat to give them, something else he would have to look into. In the meantime he would have to settle for something else. While the idea that sprang to mind wasn't the most exciting, it would at least give the children a little something to work toward.

“For the winner of the spelling bee, I will take their paper with the lowest grade and add an additional five marks to it,” Kaizer said. While most of the children didn't seem overly excited, others did seem to like the idea. With everything sorted out Kaizer started on the child at the far left, gave them a word, and things went from there. The children seemed to have a good grasp of their two letter words and no one missed any in the first round. When the second round started Kaizer began to add three letter words and noticed some were starting to get tripped up by this.

“Hiram, your word is cat,” Kaizer said. The little boy stood there for a minute thinking, then looked up.

“Can you use that in a sentence please?” Hiram said.

“The little cat had gray fur,” Kaizer said.

“Um... C-A-T?” Hiram said.

“You are correct,” Kaizer said.

The spelling bee continued for a good hour and when the winner was finally determined, it was a Julana who won. As per what was started at the start of the contest Kaizer looked through the parchment finding all of her work. With the little girl standing beside the desk he let her watch as the paper was given an additional five marks for winning the spelling bee. Julana seemed quite happy and almost skipped back to her seat.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

One of the last things that the children would have to do for the day was an actual writing assignment. Not only was it Kaizer's job to make sure that they knew how to spell, but also introduce the students to the basics of writing. He also thought about how the original lesson plan, based largely off tutoring, had been shot out the window. At this point Kaizer was teaching the children what they needed to know, but his methods were not as organized as they should have been. This was something glaringly obvious to him and also a matter that would be rectified with all due haste.

For the writing assignment the children were instructed to turn their books to page three. Here they would have to hand copy two paragraphs. There was also something else to the assignment as well, once the paragraphs were copied the children also had to add what they though of the subject matter. While Kaizer didn't expect much it was designed to see not only how well they wrote and spelled, but if they understood what was being read. The paragraphs themselves were about a young man going to market to buy food and quite simple in design.

At this stage of education it was less about details and more about the basics. Kaizer had to make sure all of the children could write and do basic mathematics so they could move on to more complicated subject matter. To a small degree it was hard for Kaizer to dumb things down to the level of a child when he was used to working with people who had a more mature and educated mind. Even those that were poorly taught seemed able to better grasp some things when they knew more about the world around them.

The children worked studiously on their assignment and as before Kaizer walked around carefully watching each of them to make sure there were no serious problems that needed to be addressed. They all seemed to be doing well and the only hiccup encountered was when one of the children ran out of ink, which was easily solved. In this instance instead of just taking the papers and stacking them on the table, he decided to grade them on the spot. For him this was one of the more important assignments and Kaizer wanted to make extra sure none of the children had any particular learning problems that might stand in their way.

He again allowed the children to talk amongst themselves while grading the papers and things went smoothly for the most part. All of them passed the writing assignment though two did stand out. Rila and Hiram both nearly failed, passing by less than three marks. He made it a point to watch and see if it was an isolated incident, of if the two of them were falling behind the others. Depending on the outcome of that decision it would determine what approach Kaizer would likely take with them.
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[Kaizer Dragos]

With all of the day's assignments finished Kaizer realized there was nothing left to do. There was only about thirty minutes before the day was done and considering the amount of work they had finished he didn't feel they should be saddled with something else. Instead of just dismissing class early, which was somewhat frowned upon, Kaizer decided to give the children a small treat, to let them know that their hard work and effort would be rewarded. Getting up he walked over to the closest and unlocked the door as the children watched curiously.

“Well children, it's almost time to go and you've finished the assignments for today so...” Kaizer said, reaching in to take the toy chest. “Second play time!” As the chest was set down the children let out excited yells and jumped from their seats. As before they all formed a single file line and chose what toy the wanted to play with. The last time Kaizer had set the chest on the right side of the room, however this time he set it on the left. This was so that the same children wouldn't always be first to choose a toy.

With the day nearly done Kaizer sat at his desk yawning gently. School would end at three which was only an hour before the next rest break. Kaizer was also thankful he had nothing planned to do aside from taking a lot of parchment home to grade, then getting a good three hours sleep. With the children getting a little more rowdy than normal, from both playtime and getting ready to go he decided to keep things to a dull roar. To that end Kaizer picked up on of the teachers books and slammed it on the desk making a loud thud. All of the children stopped what they were doing to look at him.

“I'm glad I have your attention children, now please do mind the noise,” Kaizer said. The children went back to playing but did so more quietly which he was thankful for. Shortly before they were due to get out of class Kaizer made the children put all of the toys away and gather their things, of which there wasn't much. When the bell finally rang the children didn't go dashing out the door, instead the all lined up neatly in single file with Kaizer at the front. They had to wait for a few other classes that were letting out, then he lead the children through the school and out to the front.

Because if how young the kids were Kaizer kept all of them very close at hand and made sure each was accounted for. While many of the older children took off walking, his class waited in a small semicircle while looking for their parents. Slowly but steadily they arrived to collect the children and Kaizer did a lot of meet and greets with the parents since he was the new teacher. It was almost half past three by the time the last child was safely with their parent. Now that the day was done Kaizer walked back into the building long enough to collect his own things, then headed home for the day.
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