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Authors: Nancy Krulik

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BOOK: No Messin' with My Lesson
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But Mrs. Derkman would!
Oh, no! Katie had turned into her teacher!
Katie gulped. She didn’t know anything about being a teacher. She didn’t even know what book the kids had on their desks. She’d been in the hall when Mrs. Derkman had started the lesson.
But there was one person who knew how to be Mrs. Derkman. And he did it perfectly. Katie thought back to yesterday, when George had imitated Mrs. Derkman. She tried to do what he had done. She wrinkled her brow, and scrunched up her mouth. She looked down through Mrs. Derkman’s half-glasses.
“Mrs. Derkman, do you have a toothache?” Miriam Chan asked her.
Katie sighed. Obviously, she didn’t look as much like Mrs. Derkman as she’d thought. She was never going to be able to teach her friends anything.
But she had to do
something
with the class. Otherwise, they were sure to figure out that she wasn’t really their teacher. Katie thought for a moment. Then she came up with a plan.
“Class, I’ve changed my mind,” Katie said finally. “We’re going to start the day with free reading. Everyone, take out your books.”
The kids all looked at one another. They never started the day with free reading.
“What are you waiting for?” Katie scolded them, trying to sound like Mrs. Derkman. “Take out your books.”
The kids did as they were told. As they began to read, Katie sat down at Mrs. Derkman’s desk. The blue notebook Mrs. Derkman always carried was sitting right there. Maybe there was some clue in there about what Mrs. Derkman had wanted to teach today.
Katie opened the notebook. On the first page was a list of the kids in class 3A. Next to each of the names was a row of letters. She looked at the first one.
Kevin Camilleri: B, B+, A, C
Katie slammed the book shut.
The blue book was Mrs. Derkman’s grade book. Katie didn’t want to look at her friends’ test grades. Well, maybe she
wanted
to, but she knew she shouldn’t. Grades were private.
Katie sat back in Mrs. Derkman’s big, wooden chair and sighed. Her only hope was that the magic wind would blow again and turn her back into herself before she actually had to teach anything.
The trouble with that plan was that the magic wind only came when Katie was alone. Teachers were never alone in school. There were always kids around them. Teachers never even got to go to the bathroom. At least, Katie had never seen one get up to go.
As Katie thought about her big problem, she heard whispering. She looked out at her friends. Becky was whispering something to Jeremy.
“Becky!” Katie scolded her, trying to sound like their teacher. “We are reading now.”
Becky looked back down at her book.
One minute later, Katie watched as a note flew across the room and landed on Zoe’s desk. Katie knew that Mrs. Derkman would take the note and read it out loud. But Katie couldn’t be that mean.
“Zoe, throw that in the garbage right now,” she said instead.
Zoe stood up and did as she was told.
After that, everyone was quiet. At least for a few minutes. Then Kevin started drumming his fingers on his desk.
Tap tap tap. Tap tap tap.
George began humming as he read.
Hmmm. Hmmm. Hmmm.
The sound was driving Katie crazy. “Kevin! George!” she shouted, her voice suddenly sounding shrill and sharp. “This isn’t music class. There’s no singing or drumming here. You need to be quiet.”
“Boy, Mrs.
Jerk
man is really mean today,” Mandy whispered to Suzanne.
Katie frowned. She hadn’t been trying to be mean. She’d just been trying to make sure everyone could read. Obviously, free reading time wasn’t working. Katie was going to have to teach a lesson whether she liked it or not.
She wrote a division problem on the board.
“Okay, class, put away your books,” Katie said. “We’re going to have a math lesson. Today, we will review division.”
It was better to review something than to teach something new. After all, Katie didn’t know anything new.
“Fifteen divided by three is five,” Jeremy said.
“Very good,” Katie agreed.
“That’s not good,” Suzanne interrupted.
“It’s not?” Katie asked her.
“No. He called out. We’re not allowed to call out,” Suzanne explained.
Oops.
Suzanne was right. Mrs. Derkman did not allow anyone to answer a question without raising his or her hand.
“So what?” Becky butted in. “He was right, wasn’t he?”
“But he didn’t follow the rules,” Suzanne said.
“Well, neither did you,” Jeremy told her. “You just called out, too.”
Before Katie could say anything, Mr. Kane entered the room. He was followed by a stranger in a blue suit. The stranger was carrying a notebook. The two men walked quietly to the back of the room. Mr. Kane smiled and whispered something to the visitor.
Suddenly, Katie had a horrible thought. The stranger must be the judge for the Teacher of the Year Contest. He was going to judge Mrs. Derkman right now. And Mrs. Derkman wasn’t even there!
This was
so
not good.
Chapter 7
There was nothing Katie could do but keep on teaching. Quickly, she scribbled another division problem on the board.
“Who can answer this question?” Katie asked the class. “What is twenty-seven divided by nine?” Lots of kids raised their hands. “Kevin?” Katie said.
“Four,” Kevin said confidently.
Katie nodded and turned to the blackboard. She began to write another problem on the board.
But, before she could, Mandy raised her hand. “Mrs. Derkman?”
“Yes, Mandy?” Katie asked.
“Kevin’s not right,” Mandy told her. “Twenty-seven divided by nine equals three.”
“It does not,” Kevin argued.
“Sure it does,” Mandy told him. “Because nine times three equals twenty-seven.”
“Uh, very good, Mandy. I must have heard Kevin incorrectly,” muttered Katie.
Mandy smiled at Katie. “I know all my times tables perfectly, Mrs. Derkman.”
“You’re stuck-up,” Kevin said.
“That’s not nice,” Miriam chimed in.
“I’m just being honest, like Suzanne said we should be,” Kevin told her.
“You’re jealous because I’m better in math and sports than you are,” Mandy told him.
“You’re not so great, Mandy,” Becky butted in. “You’re not the best soccer player in the class. Jeremy is. And that’s the honest truth!”
Katie knew she had to calm the kids down. But how? “You guys, come on,” she said helplessly.
No one listened to her. Instead, the arguing got worse. “Becky, you always say things like that,” Suzanne said. “Everyone knows you have a big, fat crush on Jeremy.”
Jeremy blushed. He turned to Suzanne. “Well, as long as we’re being honest,” he said, “you look like a banana in that yellow dress!”
Suzanne gulped. No one had ever said anything bad about her clothes before. “I do not!” she shouted. “This is a very cool outfit. Everybody thinks so.”
“I don’t,” Becky said. “I think Jeremy is right. You
do
look like a banana.”
“You don’t know anything about style,” Suzanne shouted back.
“You think you’re the best at everything,” Becky said to Suzanne.
“I do not!” Suzanne shouted back.
“I’m just telling the truth,” Becky said. “But you’re not the best. Can you do this?” Becky leaped out of her seat and did a back flip. She landed on the floor in a split.
Katie looked helplessly at the class. She gulped. Mr. Kane was still standing there in the back of the room. But he didn’t look happy anymore. His face was beet red, and his eyes were bulging. A vein was throbbing at the top of his bald head.
The principal couldn’t take the arguing anymore. He took a step toward the front of the room and opened his mouth to speak.
But, before Mr. Kane could say a word, the judge tapped him on the shoulder. He whispered something in the principal’s ear. Mr. Kane whispered something back. The judge shook his head.
Mr. Kane threw his hands up in the air. “This is a disaster!” he said. Then he stormed out of the room. The door slammed shut behind him.
The judge did not leave the room. He stayed to watch what would happen next. From the look on his face, Katie could tell he was very disappointed at the way things were going. So, Katie did a very un-Derkman thing. She leaped up on a desk and whistled—loud.
The kids stopped talking and stared at their teacher. Mrs. Derkman had never done anything like that before.
“Okay, everyone sit down,” Katie said. “This is not a nice way to act.”
“But we’re just being honest,” Suzanne said. “Friends have to be honest with each other.”
Katie nodded. “There’s a difference between being honest, and being mean,” she said. “I think maybe you were using Suzanne’s advice column as an excuse to be mean. And that is totally not okay.”
Totally not okay?
The kids all stared at one another. Mrs. Derkman never spoke like that.
BOOK: No Messin' with My Lesson
12.38Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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