Summer at Fraser’s Mill

New Horizons

G race Murray burst out into her best impression of Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly, Southern accent and all—just as the school principal walked in the door.

Of course it would be the day for Grace’s teacher evaluation. She had already overslept, spilled coffee on herself in her rush to leave, and left the worksheet she needed for her sixth grade students at home. So she had spent her entire morning planning period recreating the worksheet, just for the printer to refuse to connect to her computer. She’d resorted to writing the worksheet in longhand and photocopied it, hoping her students could read her handwriting since her printing had become awful after years of college note-taking. And through all that chaos, she’d forgotten to change and still had coffee on her blouse—how unprofessional!

Principal Melanie Russo didn’t say a word to Grace or the students. She sat on a chair near the door, one leg crossed over the other, a digital notebook resting on her knee, her digital pen poised to write.

Melanie was a tall, thin woman with hair that looked like it never dared to get out of place. She’d been the vice principal of the school until earlier this semester, when the former principal had resigned because of illness. Grace hadn’t had a teacher evaluation with Melanie yet, and she wasn’t sure Melanie would approve of her methods. Although the new principal was a friendly woman and a good educator, she intimidated Grace, who struggled with organization. School reputation dubbed Melanie an excellent organizer, after all.

The classroom was currently rearranged with the desks in a circle facing the center of the room, with Grace in her chair in the middle. Grace had gotten this idea from another teacher, and although moving all the desks was an annoyance, she agreed the “round table” approach did wonders for classroom discussions. But what would the principal think of it? At least Melanie hadn’t come in last week when Grace had tried to do this with her fifth graders. The room had become so chaotic that Grace gave up on the “round table” for fifth grade.

At least the kids were talking now, saving Grace from more character impressions. Olivia Moreno, the biggest talker in this class, held forth on the difference between Anne Shirley’s treatment of Marilla and Matthew in Anne of Green Gables, the last book they had read, and Tom Sawyer’s treatment of his Aunt Polly.

“I think Tom is being bad on purpose,” she said. “He’s always running away and stealing doughnuts and driving Aunt Polly crazy. Anne doesn’t do any of those things.”

“What do you think about that?” Grace asked the students. “Aunt Polly is often upset with Tom, and Marilla Cuthbert is often upset with Anne. Is there a difference between Tom’s behavior and Anne’s behavior that makes these ladies upset?”

“Anne doesn’t do those things on purpose,” Nathan Gorecki, a tall brown-haired boy, said. “She wants to be good, but she keeps making mistakes. Like when the mouse falls in the pudding sauce and Anne forgets to tell Marilla about it.”

Nathan had been one of the quieter students when Grace started the novel discussions, but he was beginning to hit his stride. Grace smiled and nodded at him.

In the students’ last novel study of Anne of Green Gables, Grace had resorted to calling on her quieter students with questions. This time she’d come up with a different plan. She created cards with discussion prompts for the kids. They could bring up quotes they liked from the section they were reading. They could try to predict what would happen next in the story. They could talk about characters they liked or disliked. Grace didn’t mind if the conversation went off on tangents, as long as the kids were engaged with the story.

“What about when Anne dyed her hair green?” Lucia Sanchez, a small girl with pigtail braids, asked. “Marilla told her never to buy anything from peddlers, and she knew she wasn’t supposed to dye her hair.”

“But she was sorry about it,” Olivia Moreno said. “And she didn’t do it to be mean.”

Grace jumped in to bring Tom Sawyer back into the conversation. “Do you guys think Tom Sawyer behaves badly in order to be mean?”

“I do,” Olivia said.

“Me too,” Maria said.

“Can you give me some examples of that?” Grace asked.

Privately, she would characterize Tom’s behavior as thoughtlessness. That could be a good direction to turn the conversation—the distinction, if any, between meanness and thoughtlessness.

“Tom makes me think of Calvin and Hobbes,” Tim Phillips, a lanky dark-haired boy with a mischievous face, spoke up. “He’s always trying to see what he can get away with.”

“Yeah,” Nathan Gorecki chimed in. “Like how Calvin’s always trying to get desserts.”

“And run away from school,” Tim said. “And even when he’s at school, he’s pretending to be Spaceman Spiff.”

“I don’t like Calvin either,” Olivia said, shaking her head. “He’s such a brat.”

“How can you not like Calvin?” Tim demanded.

“Because he’s mean,” Olivia said.

“You think everybody’s mean,” Tim said.

Olivia glowered at Tim. This wasn’t working well.

“Hey, hey,” Grace said. “Let’s get along. We can talk about Calvin and Hobbes after class. That was a good comparison though, Tim. Let’s go back to Tom Sawyer.”

This was no time for the students to go off on tangents and argue with each other. What if Melanie thought discussion-based classes always went like that? Maybe Grace should have stepped in more quickly when the kids began to disagree.

Near the door, Melanie took notes, poker-faced. Grace tried not to think about it. At least Melanie would see the students were participating.

It seemed like an age until the half-hour of discussion finished. Grace gave the kids some questions to answer in their writing notebooks for the last few minutes of class. Melanie closed her digital notebook and walked out, her high heels clicking on the floor.

Grace sank back in her chair. The class had felt chaotic. Would Melanie think the discussion was effective teaching? Would she think Grace had contributed enough as the conversation leader? If Melanie didn’t approve, Grace might be back to pre-packaged lesson plans.

§

Grace was in her office, packing up for the afternoon, when Melanie appeared in the doorway. She had a briefcase.

“Grace,” she said. “I thought we might have a little talk.”

In Grace’s experience, when someone suggested a “little talk” it usually meant he or she had a bone to pick with you. She swallowed. Had she done something wrong?

“Of course.” Grace whisked a stack of notebooks off a chair to make space for Melanie.

“I’ll get right to the point.” Melanie sat down. “First of all, you’re doing excellently, Grace. That class was great. The kids were really engaged in the discussion.”

Thank goodness. The class sure hadn’t felt great. “That’s good to hear,” Grace said. “They’re good kids, and I think they like the discussion classes.”

Melanie nodded. “I’ve got a proposition for you. Have you ever considered pursuing National Board certification? I think it would be a great experience to help you grow as a teacher.”

National Board certification? “Oh, wow,” Grace said.

Some of the more experienced teachers in the school were certified and had NBCT after their names. Grace had dreamed about having NBCT after her name too, but the certification process sounded like a herculean task that took a lot of experience. Melanie thought Grace was ready to handle that?

“Wow,” Grace said again. “I’ve—well, I’ve certainly heard about it, but I had no idea I could be ready to do that. I heard one of the teachers say it was the hardest thing she’s ever done.”

“It’s a lengthy process,” Melanie said. “But the certification has a lot of benefits. For one thing, you automatically get your clear teaching credential in California. You’ve been teaching for three years, haven’t you?”

“That’s right.”

“Then you need to get the clear credential soon anyway.” Melanie fished in her briefcase. “I’m telling you about this now because it’s good timing. If you start preparing for it now and put together your submissions during the fall, you could have your certification by next summer. Do you want to see a brief overview of the process?”

“Sure,” Grace said. “Absolutely, I would!”