Chapter 8
Upon finishing her breakfast Kaleigh cleaned her place and left the cafeteria to head for her first class. She went up to her room and grabbed her bag and book and then started heading up the stairs to Math. She was nervous, not completely unreasonably, she thought to herself, it was her first time in this class and she didn’t really know anyone.
After going up five floors, finally, Kaleigh had reached her first class, cautiously she opened the door and walked in, only two students were there, they were sitting down in desks that were arranged so that they were all facing a blackboard at the front of the room, looking up at a clock Kaleigh saw that she was a few minutes early. Kaleigh spotted a man sitting behind a desk that was larger than the student desks. There was a nameplate on the desk that read Mr. Tom Spatazzini in big bold letters. Kaleigh walked up to the desk and said, in a voice barely above a whisper, “Umm, excuse me…Mr. Spatazzini” the man glanced up at her and then looked down at a paper on his desk.
“Ah, you must be Kaleigh”, he said this very quickly. “You may sit in the third seat in the second row.” He motioned towards a desk, “I presume that you have brought with you Basic Algebra, a notebook, and a pencil” Kaleigh nodded, “very well then, welcome to the class, if you are ever confused feel free to raise your hand and ask your questions, or you may see me after class with questions, please take your seat.”
Kaleigh was taken aback by how quickly the man spoke, almost as if she wouldn’t understand him if he said it slowly. She nodded curtly, and went to the seat he had suggested.
As Kaleigh sat there more students filed into the room, most came in pairs or small clusters, laughing and talking animatedly. She observed the groups closely, trying to catch the names she had heard, and match them to faces, maybe she could talk to someone that sat near her, and maybe they would like her and be friends, she hoped.
When everyone was seated Mr. Spatazzini stood up, very suddenly, walked to the front of the room, faced the students and said, all very quickly, “As you can see class we have a new student, Kaleigh,” he gestured towards her but continued speaking very rapidly, “You should all welcome her, now today we will be discussing graphing equations, turn to page 137 and look at some of the examples,” not at all leaving time for turning to page 137 or looking at anything, he started writing on the board” now, copy this in your notebook, it is important, when you are done copying this, do problems 1-35 in your book, any questions and you may quietly raise your hand and I will answer them.” He stopped talking abruptly and after writing a few more notes on the board, and drawing a graph, he went to his desk.
Kaleigh sat a moment motionless, a bit shocked by the rapidness of the instructions, and the lack of teaching that seemed to happen in this class. Taking out a notebook Kaleigh wrote the date at the top of the page and began copying the notes; it was a bit difficult to decipher Mr. Spatazzini’s handwriting, but she was able to figure out all the words after a few moments examination. After she had all of the notes she opened her book and looked down at the assigned problems, at least, she thought to herself, we already learned this at my school.
A bell rang, and all of the students started packing up, practically running out of the classroom, perhaps Mr. Spatazzini’s fast acting caused everyone to move quickly. After exiting the room Kaleigh looked at her schedule, history next. She had never considered herself very good at history; it was all memorization, lots of names, places, and dates. She hoped the professor would be nice, and perhaps a little slower when he talked than Mr. Spatazzini.
Kaleigh went to the stairway and walked down a floor. She found the classroom quickly. Bracing herself, she opened the door, it was completely different from the math room, the walls were covered with posters of famous people, and maps, and famous artwork. Kaleigh walked into the room, a bit in awe, the walls were so well covered that she couldn’t see a single blank area in the room. Kaleigh was so amazed by her surroundings that she didn’t notice the very tall man walking towards her until he was only two feet away. She looked up at him startled. He was about 6 foot 6 inches tall, and though he looked young he was bald. He smiled at her, in a kind way, but not a friendly way necessarily, one could tell that he meant business, he wasn’t the teacher that was friends with all of this students, but he was the type of teacher who you could learn a lot from if you wanted to. He shook hands with Kaleigh as he introduced himself, “You may call me, Mr. Thorlin; I have assigned you the fourth seat in the fifth row. If you have any questions, or are confused do not hesitate to ask.” Mr. Thorlin had a very deep voice. When he was done speaking with Kaleigh he went to the front chalkboard and began to write down a few names: Henry I, Stephen, Henry II, William the Conqueror. Kaleigh recognized these names, though she didn’t know much about them. When more people started pouring into the room Kaleigh decided to take her seat. Looking around at her peers she saw they all had notebooks out, Kaleigh took one out, and just as she had done with her math notebook, she opened to the first page and started by writing the date.
The entire class was looking up at Mr. Thorlin expectantly, no one was talking or laughing, everyone was watching him with respect. Mr. Thorlin seemed to be the type of teacher that, as long as you respected him, he would respect you, and no one would have a problem.
Mr. Thorlin started speaking in his deep voice, he explained that they were started a new unit on the Medieval Times, and he began to speak about each of the people he had written about on the board. He spoke slowly enough for them to take notes of what he was saying; occasionally he would stop and repeat something, or write another name or place on the board. Kaleigh was surprised when she heard the bell; she had actually gotten interested in a history subject enough that she hadn’t realized how fast the time had gone. Maybe history class wouldn’t be as bad as difficult as she had prospected, and it would certainly be superior to her math class. Glancing down at her schedule Kaleigh gave a large smile, music was next, this, at least, she knew she was going to enjoy. Kaleigh loved music, her mother was always singing around the house, and teaching her the words to popular songs, at least, that is what she had done before. This thought sent a chill down her spine, but Kaleigh quickly sent the thought to a back corner of her mind, and remembered Mr. K’s enthusiasm, and she happily descended the stairs to the 8th floor.
1 comment:
jeez laurel. you write a lot. haah.
anyways, i <3 mr. k! haha. her morning teachers don't seem all that great. boring, blah, and not helpful. not very good for morning time. haha.
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