Who: Serah and Mary Poppins What: First day as TA When: Monday Where: A school! Status: Complete Rating: Pg
Nerves. Serah definitely had them, and well, she certainly felt like she deserved them. This was going to be her first classroom experience and that was just a little scary. And meeting the teacher, that was even scarier. What if they didn’t get along? Serah could get along with just about anyone but that didn’t mean that it would be easy.
She stood outside Ms. Poppins’ classroom, wearing a smart white blouse and a salmon skirt, with matching heels that were sensible. Her blonde hair was up in a bun, and she took a few steadying breaths before she knocked.
Mary was ecstatic to have a teaching assistant in her room. She felt rather proud of the fact that while she was still new to the school, they had entrusted her with a growing prospect of a future teacher. She had felt Miss Farron once and believed they would get along splendidly. It had been rather fast, more of a quick introduction, but they would have more time to get to know one another.
When she heard the knock, she looked up from her papers, removing her glasses. She smiled, thinking it sweet that the girl would knock instead of coming in. She stood up, smoothing out her skirt and made her way across the classroom to open the door. “Hello Serah, how are you doing today?” She extended her hand for her to shake. “Please, come in and make yourself at home.”
"I'm good, thanks." Serah shook Mary's hand a little enthusiastically before coming in and looking around. Oh this was so exciting and she was in a classroom with a real teacher and everything. And there were going to be real students! Real little minds to nurture and grow!
"Your classroom looks really nice, Ms. Poppins."
Mary followed after, closing the door behind her. “Thank you very much. I have been able to put a little flair on everything here. The kids seem to enjoy it.” Actually, she wasn’t really sure how the kids felt. They came in and goofed around as any ten year old would. But she was convinced that adding that personal touch to one’s classroom helped make the kids feel at home and at ease. A home away from home as it were.
“So! We met briefly before, but only for the assignment of my classroom. I can tell you a little about the curriculum that will be taught over the year, at least what I have so far. But tell me, why are you interested in teaching Serah?” Mary took a seat behind her desk once more, gesturing to a seat next to her. She didn’t want to make Serah feel like she was a student herself, but more of an equal.
"If they feel more at home they're more open to learning," Serah said, nodding. She had a cutely bouncy way of nodding. Smoothing her skirt out as she sat, she took a moment to decide the best way to answer. "I love children. That's a no brainer. I want to be able to help them learn and understand the world. It's so... it can be really cruel out there. I want to turn my own experiences into something positive. I was in the foster system for a time and it's really scary how many kids just stop caring, because no one cares about them. If they can see someone who cares about them learning then maybe I can make a difference."
Mary couldn’t help but smile as she nodded her head to Serah’s story. She had it all right. She had just talked to Glinda about this same topic. “You’re very right in that regard. I think the experience you had will be a great insight towards helping kids. Sometimes their home life may not be top notch, so it’s important that they do have a positive role model in their life and someone they can feel comfortable with. Hopefully we can do right by them!” Mary had a feeling that she and Serah would get along fabulously.
“Wonderful! Well, it’s the last half of the year so we’re really moving into getting the last of the curriculum covered! In literature we have a brief overview of Shakespeare. I was thinking of giving them examples of how he wrote and why it was so important, but then allowing them to read a modified version. I was thinking Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth.” Those were the best three she could think of that would interest the kids at so young an age. “After, we could put them into groups and have them act out their favorite scene!”
“I think Hamlet might be a good choice,” Serah thought aloud. “Romeo and Juliet if we give a lesson in what’s all wrong about their romance.” Not that she didn’t love romance, but she’d never thought that that was the best example of true love!
Mary couldn’t help but laugh at her comment. “Well, we wouldn’t want to necessarily give them the right or wrong of something so subjective, but we could certainly use it. Or!” The thought suddenly popped into her head. “We could have a debate over it! One side could be why true love is right and the other, to your point, why it was so wrong!” Mary quickly jotted down a note. “Wonderful! I think that will do nicely for the end of the year!”
“Well I mean…” Serah blushed a little. “It ends in murder and suicide and they knew each other for three days. And Juliet is like thirteen. I think it might be good to contrast it against a healthier romance?”
“It seems like you could help the side for the against,” Mary said, the smile still playing on her lips. “But let’s see, we have literature. For history, we’ll be finishing up with the colonies and the growth of the United States. Math is multiplication and division review. And then we have time for a miscellaneous activity.” She leaned back in her chair. “This can be anything from reading a story to the children to an outdoor activity.” She studied Serah, finally nodding her head as if she had made up her mind.
“Would you care to be in charge of that? You could come up with something for the rest of year. Can be different each day or go for a couple weeks. Whatever you would like to do with the children.” It sounded as if she were just passing it off to Serah, but she meant it to be more of a responsibility. Since she hadn’t seen Serah in action yet, she would wait in terms of lesson coverage, but thought their daily routine could do with something new and upbeat; Serah fit that perfectly.
Serah nodded, letting the Romeo and Juliet thing drop. “I think a little variety couldn’t hurt. Save something fun and light for Fridays. Like activities…” She was already brainstorming a dozen ideas, and it made her excited! “Maybe a theme for each month and then vary within that theme!”
“I think that sounds brilliant,” she said, with a smile. She liked this girls enthusiasm. She knew how hard teaching could be, but when a teacher was motivated and enthusiastic despite the circumstances, they would be able to conquer anything.
“Now tell me, what are your hopes this semester in the classroom? What would you like to do?”
“Me?” She hadn’t expected that question. She really should have, but each teacher was different. She was starting to be very glad they let her have a light course-load while she did this. “I doubt the budget would allow it, but I’ve found a few programs online that are really fun and really educational. Education masked by a video game.”
“Oh? Tell me more about these.” She clasped her hands together, placing them under her chin. She wasn’t a fan of video games herself, but the ones she had seen were mostly too violent and made the children want to recreate their favorite moments at recess. But if something was educational that might appeal to the children, she would definitely be open to that idea.
“Where there’s this one called minecraft which is like an interactive building blocks game. And games like the Sims can teach everything from social studies to advanced mathematics.” Which was about the only way to explain Sims behaviour sometimes. “I’ve played a few that offer difficult choices, but most of those are for teens and up.” She thought about it a little more. “It’s really a shame some of them are so violent, they have some really interesting messages that could resonate!”
Mary slowly nodded her head. “So are you suggesting for the children to play video games that are already established or re-creating games that are more educationally appropriate but follow along the same lines as these popular pop culture ones?”
“Well the former but… that’s a really good idea!” Serah bounced in her seat. “I’ve heard of people who modify these games and maybe I could find some volunteers to make them kid friendly!”
“I’m not sure if you would have the time to have those games modified, but I certainly like the way you think Serah. For now, I’m not sure about having the children play these games as it is. They’re still so young that they may not pick up on the educational aspect and just find it as time to goof off in class or at home.” She thought it over, not wanting to make Serah feel like her idea was completely useless. “Why don’t you make it a note to see if you can come up with a solid lesson plan that would clearly outline what the students are to do with the video games and what they can learn from it. I’ll take a look and see if we might be able to integrate it.”
She already had an idea for Minecraft that would basically have the kids work together to build something, but it needed more thought. “I’ll give it some thought and give you something next week.” She clasped her hands over her lap. “Maybe I’m just being a little exciteable.”
“There’s no such thing. I’m very happy to see how passionate you are about all of this and already coming in with some…inventive ideas.” She smiled, making a note about Serah’s ideas and writing a little more about them. “Other than that, I can give you a few of my lesson plans for you to look over. Otherwise I think I’ll just have you observe a couple of classes, take home some papers to grade, and we’ll go from there. Does that sound alright to you?”
“That sounds perfect!” She couldn’t wait to meet the students, and see how Ms. Poppins handled them. Every teacher was different but some Serah had every intention of taking as much as she could from the other woman so that when she finished her degree she’d get her very own classroom!