Lonely Oak Chapter 27
#27 of Lonely Oak Part 1 | Cycla Circadia
"Good morning, class." "Morning Ms. Hupp..." The raccoon teacher stood at the center of the room, wearing clothes that were a couple sizes smaller than she had from the beginning of January. Therefore, she was in a very upbeat mood this morning, having lost thirteen pounds already and expecting to lose even more. Her students, however, were as droll and tired as always. And the news this morning would make them grumpy. "It's our last week of February, which means it'll start getting warmer, the days will start getting longer--and the RSBTs are just around the corner!" As she expected, her class groaned. "I know, I know. You love taking it every year..." The RSBT was the standardized test that students had to take annually; for some years they had to pass each subject in order to be promoted to the next grade. It was an acronym that had an official name, but the students--and indeed, some of the faculty that held it in disdain--called it the Really Stupid and Boring Test. The students would have to satisfy a series of multiple-choice exams. It was especially annoying because most grades didn't have to take it, but they had to take it anyway. The subjects covered on the test were Reading Assessment, Language Arts skills, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and a writing essay. The test was taken over the course of a few days in April, but preparation began as early as today. "Unfortunately, it means we won't be focusing so much on new things but reviewing what we've learned the past several months so I understand it gets a little boring." "D'I really haffa take it?" Ritzer protested. "Yes, dear," Ms. Hupp replied, "And you should do better since you've seen it before," she added. "Anywho, it also means we'll be sacrificing our class reading time to cover some of the subjects on the exam, so you will still need to read your books and write your reports, just more outside of class." "Aww," Rini whimpered, slapping her desk, "But ours is really big! How are we supposed to do all this work?" "Rini," Ms. Hupp countered, "You're in a group of three. I'm sure you can divide the work. Now, I'm going to be nice and we're going to start with some fun things today, rather than jump right in with the boring stuff." She turned about and went to the whiteboard, which now had a bit of a red tinge to it, and uncapped the blue marker. She wrote on the board, in big letters, Haiku. With a snap, the marker was capped and she turned back around. "Have any of you written a haiku before?" The kids exchanged glances, some with mouths a little open, dreading the word. But one student raised his hand. "Yes, Panda?" "I have. A haiku is a type of poem; it's got three lines. The first and last have five syllables each, and the middle has seven." Ms. Hupp beamed. "That's exactly right." "Um...Ms. Hupp?" Lyza raised her hand. "What's a... silly-ball?" The class giggled, as usual; and also as usual Rini was quick to say: "It's what you threw at Panda last week." "Rini," Ms. Hupp spoke sternly. "Now why don't you try again and give us the correct answer?" The girl blinked, her vivid, pink ears twitching nervously. "Uhm...well, see, when you talk...um...it's...kind of like letters...but they hear you--uhm..." The class started giggling again. "Now now," the teacher regained control, "A syllable is when your jaw drops to make a sound. You can tell when a syllable happens if you place your hand underneath your chin. Every time your hand goes down, that is one syllable." She demonstrated, placing the back of her hand beneath her jaw. "Syl-la-ble," she said, "has three syllables, because my jaw dropped three times." The class imitated her, a cacophony of babbling noises commenced as each one experimented. Some chanted nursery rhymes, others said a few simple words, and some just spoke nonsensical gibberish out of play. The teacher let them have fun for a few moments before bringing their attention back to her. Once all was quiet, she wrote several words on the board: Pumpkin, Tomato, February... The students began shouting words out and she looked back, smiling. She started writing their suggestions, glad that they were eager in the exercise. When she was done, nearly two dozen words were on the board, and they began going through each one to count all the syllables, which she underlined in red. Some words were tricky, like wizard. At first the students said it was only one syllable, but Ms. Hupp pointed out that it only seemed that way because the second one did not drop as much. When all was done, the students had a comfortable feeling for counting, and Ms. Hupp took the topic back to haiku. "Like Panda said, a haiku has three lines," she drew three horizontal lines on the board; two short, and one long one in the middle. "The first line has five syllables--it can have different words, but only five syllables. The middle line has seven syllables. The last line has five again. So, let's come up with a haiku together. Why don't you all raise your hands, and I'll pick someone, and we'll make a haiku word-by-word. Arthur, whatchya got for me?" "Pickles!" He said. "How many syllables is that?" He spoke the word, feeling his jaw. "Two." She went about the room, picking students to give her different words. In the end, they came up with the following:
Pickles taste like green Birds leave in the winter time Bugs want pickle pie "Well, this is an interesting one," Ms. Hupp said, standing back. "Now, let's make sure everything is correct." They all chanted the poem aloud, counting on fingers. When the haiku was deemed correct, Ms. Hupp instructed her class to write their own haiku, which also gave her a chance to sit back down at her desk. She looked over her stack of papers, dreading the month to come. Review was as boring for her as it was for the--"Ritzer, get to work." The lion cub grumbled. Ms. Hupp smiled a little. The class was murmuring, an obstacle that could not be helped. She was usually very quick with her kids, and this class was a lot less trouble than the year before. She had gotten so worn out, constantly fighting for control. It didn't help that she had had to be Ritzer's teacher ever since he got into the fifth grade, but there was no helping that. None of the other teachers had counselor's experience like she did, and Ritzer was a handful on his own. "I said get to work, young man." For the next fifteen minutes or so, aside from having to remind Ritzer that he needed to work, she sat contentedly, giving herself a bit of a break. Tuesdays were the worst days of the week, in her opinion. On Monday you were well-rested from the weekend, fresh and ready to go. Wednesday was Hump-Day, which meant you only had two more days left. Thursday was Pay-Day. And then Friday, of course, signified the weekend. Sure, Sunday meant Monday but at least you had Saturday to rest up. But Tuesday was grim. Monday wore you out and you still weren't at the top of the hump. Her rest was short-lived, as soon the kids either began to get bored or they had finished their work. So, with a heavy sigh she stood up and returned to the front of the room. "Okay, class. Pass up your haiku, and remember not to write your name on it if you're shy about it being posted on the bulletin board outside." Lyza grumbled, using her pen to scratch away her name, and then decided to just tear the notebook paper a little more. Ms. Hupp walked about the room, collecting leaves of paper as kids tore them from the big sheets. She returned to the front of the room. "Now, let's see what you all came up with and then we'll start getting into the boring stuff, hmm?" She fished the first leaf of paper up, and read the poem aloud:
The Three Prime Colors Ocean Blue, Sun Red, Grass Green, Make the whole Rainbow "Very good. Let's see if you can all keep it up;" she began to read more, commenting after each one:
Ms. Hupp is reading A hi-koo I wrote in class. And then gives me a 'A'. "Very funny, but the last line is six syllables. And these aren't really for a grade."
I know many names! Most kids have only three names. I am known by four. "That's very unique. I'm one of the ones with only three."
King Tutankhamon: A mysterious pharaoh Ruled over the Nile. "Very nice. It's hard to tell but... Yup, the syllable count is correct."
Playing in your ears Wood-wind whistling high and low My breath makes music. "Oh, this one's just beautiful!"
He climbed very high Up into the branches for A mean, stupid cat. "Hmm... sounds almost like there's a little story behind this one." Ms. Hupp read the last few, and then, to the class's dismay, began passing out a big packet of reading papers which they would be using as their study material for just one of the subjects for the next several weeks.