Post by Hana Uta on Jun 3, 2015 20:33:49 GMT
Hana flipped on a light switch, illuminating the dark, vacant teacher's lounge. He walked over to a couch and sat down, turning over the clipboard in his hand. It was stacked thick with class rosters, assignments, statistics, and various other notes regarding the many students in his math classes. It was an all-important resource; a tactile database of ready-to-use knowledge. This was his first year having to teach multiple levels of math to all three grades at the high school, and keeping up with the workload was a challenge; between planning lessons, grading tests and assignments, and student profiling, coming in to the school this early in the morning had practically become a necessity. What's worse, everything up until now had been the easy part. While early in the term he gave simple boilerplate lectures and assignments in a number of styles geared towards profiling his students' varying strengths, weaknesses, learning styles, and commitments to learning, now was the time to devote extra care to analyzing the information he had gathered and incorporating it into his future lesson plans. The benefits of teaching at a "private school for society's privileged elite" were not lost on him; such small, exclusive rosters were difficult but still manageable with his preferred methods. He shuddered to imagine how much value would be lost to his students were he teaching larger masses at a public school, the logistics of the sheer numbers involved simply disallowing him from paying any sort of specialized attention to each individual. He was grateful to have consistently had the chance to do so at Ouran, even if it often meant giving up a few more hours of his personal time out of the week.
With his thumb, Hana demarcated a bundle of papers - those pertaining to class 1-C, also his homeroom - and began perusing the roster on top. He stopped at a pair of names: Yuri and Suzu Murasaki, the twins. Suzu was the more interesting of the pair to him, and a tiny lightning bolt cloud had been drawn next to her name. He flipped through his bundle for a pair of assignment copies marked with the same emblem in the bottom right corner and unclipped them to examine them side by side. Suzu never showed her work on problems unless doing so was specifically instructed, and even then she often skipped over some steps or, on occasion, seemed to neglect them entirely. Even when she didn't show her work, it was clear from her answers that the same sort of thing was going on in her head every time. This was odd to Hana because she seemed perfectly capable of reciting theorems or definitions word for word when called upon in class. As far as he could tell, her memory was effectively photographic, but she lacked the patience to fully apply herself, especially when it came to math. While he couldn't teach her greater patience, perhaps there were some things he could do to make applying herself seem like less of a chore and more beneficial for the effort, he decided. He let his mind wander briefly, pondering possible elements to introduce into his lectures to take advantage of her visual learning style. She'd probably like the various mathematical "shortcuts" he'd be introducing. Maybe it would help to visualize the steps to solving a specific type of problem as a flowchart, or a state machine? Maybe have the regular state machine and the "shortcut" state machine side by side for comparison? He softly chuckled a little as he flipped up the entire stack of papers and jotted down some notes on the notepad underneath.
Returning to the class roster, Hana couldn't keep his face from lighting up a little when his eyes fell upon another name: Kai Ohime, marked with a stylish six-pointed star. He flipped to a page of notes in his bundle marked with her emblem. This girl was bright and cheery enough in his homeroom, even more so in his math class. He liked her; she reminded him of himself at that age, the rare student interested in learning math for its own sake. It helped that he had never once heard her question the real-world practicality of the myriad theorems and formulae she was presented with like many other students; instead she seemingly chose to take them at face value. This naturally lent itself to her readily grasping difficult abstract mathematical concepts even without the usual analogies, and that combined with her ability to boost morale would make her an invaluable team member in group activities, Hana had decided. He wanted to try organizing group activities for difficult topics where Kai could help encourage other students who might not be as eager to learn from falling behind. What he also wanted to do, though, was offer to pull her aside and try coaching her to better convey the topics she so easily grasped to her classmates to help them better understand and further help her groups along. He added another note to the page to specifically ask her about that later.
Thinking about Kai called another name to Hana's mind, however. He dug through his clipboard for class 3-C's roster and stared at the name Kagami Ohime. Kai's sister, and yet nearly her complete opposite in every way imaginable. She reminded Hana of himself in a different way: quiet, introverted, and never saying anything more than strictly necessary when called on. Her lack of expression left him unable to get a complete handle on her profile. She was an odd case to him, appearing to be stuck in a juxtaposition of taking her grades very seriously while simultaneously despising the class itself, and she always became extremely defensive when questioned about her work. From what he could deduce about her life aspirations from her choice of extracurricular activities, just getting through his class with a passing grade should've been satisfactory to her, so he didn't know what seemed to be bothering her so much. What he wanted to do was pull her aside for some one-on-one tutoring sessions to better figure out her learning style and what he could do to help her, but he figured she was unlikely to take him up on that if offered the choice. Maybe she'd be more likely to comply if I set it forth as a required corrective action for consistently low grades over a certain period? he thought. I'd have to be fair about it, though. Hmm. This one will take some thought. He scribbled a gemstone shape next to her name, then tore off a blank sheet of paper from his notepad and scribbled the same emblem into the corner, jotting down some notes before stuffing it into the stack.
Moving on, Hana flipped to the roster for class 2-B, where two names had been linked by a drawn-on bracket: Kage Munro and Shiro Yamamoto. He liked Shiro, partly because she enjoyed his class but also because the few times he'd happened to see her outside of school, she had always been identifiably emulating the clothing style of an anime or game character he could recognize. What was interesting to him was the dynamic between her and Kage. They were clearly best friends, and while Kage wasn't as enthusiastic about his class as Shiro was, Shiro always seemed to be there to help her out and the two worked well together. Somewhere in Hana's stack of sheets was a reminder to decide on a good way to discourage the temptation to cheat off each other on tests. But he still planned to introduce several pair activities where they'd no doubt team up with each other. The more pressing issue was homework, not particularly concerning the two of them but in general. He had no qualms about students collaborating with each other on assignments, but he knew that merely copying answers did nothing to help the copier in the long run. How many of his students understood that for what it truly meant was anyone's guess, but he was especially wary of the school's prissier students; those who expected their lives to be handed to them on silver platters from off the backs of everyone around them. Though whatever behavior they used to get their way was beyond his jurisdiction to deal with, he knew how to watch for the discrepancies and incongruities that bespoke copying or cheating, and to tailor his lectures and tests in response to teach such students that they would be rewarded for it less than for making sure their own honest efforts were up to snuff.
A few more flipped pages and scribbled notes later, Hana set down his clipboard and slumped into the couch. He gazed up at the clock on the wall and sighed happily; he had gotten more work done this morning than he'd expected, and faster. Maybe he had time to double-check the last few paragraphs of his latest fanfic translation after all. He dug his smartphone out of his pocket, pulled up a text document from an email, and began reading. He didn't even look up when he heard the lounge door open. Instead, he instinctively ducked his head and pulled his phone closer to his face, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible despite obviously being the only other person in the room.
With his thumb, Hana demarcated a bundle of papers - those pertaining to class 1-C, also his homeroom - and began perusing the roster on top. He stopped at a pair of names: Yuri and Suzu Murasaki, the twins. Suzu was the more interesting of the pair to him, and a tiny lightning bolt cloud had been drawn next to her name. He flipped through his bundle for a pair of assignment copies marked with the same emblem in the bottom right corner and unclipped them to examine them side by side. Suzu never showed her work on problems unless doing so was specifically instructed, and even then she often skipped over some steps or, on occasion, seemed to neglect them entirely. Even when she didn't show her work, it was clear from her answers that the same sort of thing was going on in her head every time. This was odd to Hana because she seemed perfectly capable of reciting theorems or definitions word for word when called upon in class. As far as he could tell, her memory was effectively photographic, but she lacked the patience to fully apply herself, especially when it came to math. While he couldn't teach her greater patience, perhaps there were some things he could do to make applying herself seem like less of a chore and more beneficial for the effort, he decided. He let his mind wander briefly, pondering possible elements to introduce into his lectures to take advantage of her visual learning style. She'd probably like the various mathematical "shortcuts" he'd be introducing. Maybe it would help to visualize the steps to solving a specific type of problem as a flowchart, or a state machine? Maybe have the regular state machine and the "shortcut" state machine side by side for comparison? He softly chuckled a little as he flipped up the entire stack of papers and jotted down some notes on the notepad underneath.
Returning to the class roster, Hana couldn't keep his face from lighting up a little when his eyes fell upon another name: Kai Ohime, marked with a stylish six-pointed star. He flipped to a page of notes in his bundle marked with her emblem. This girl was bright and cheery enough in his homeroom, even more so in his math class. He liked her; she reminded him of himself at that age, the rare student interested in learning math for its own sake. It helped that he had never once heard her question the real-world practicality of the myriad theorems and formulae she was presented with like many other students; instead she seemingly chose to take them at face value. This naturally lent itself to her readily grasping difficult abstract mathematical concepts even without the usual analogies, and that combined with her ability to boost morale would make her an invaluable team member in group activities, Hana had decided. He wanted to try organizing group activities for difficult topics where Kai could help encourage other students who might not be as eager to learn from falling behind. What he also wanted to do, though, was offer to pull her aside and try coaching her to better convey the topics she so easily grasped to her classmates to help them better understand and further help her groups along. He added another note to the page to specifically ask her about that later.
Thinking about Kai called another name to Hana's mind, however. He dug through his clipboard for class 3-C's roster and stared at the name Kagami Ohime. Kai's sister, and yet nearly her complete opposite in every way imaginable. She reminded Hana of himself in a different way: quiet, introverted, and never saying anything more than strictly necessary when called on. Her lack of expression left him unable to get a complete handle on her profile. She was an odd case to him, appearing to be stuck in a juxtaposition of taking her grades very seriously while simultaneously despising the class itself, and she always became extremely defensive when questioned about her work. From what he could deduce about her life aspirations from her choice of extracurricular activities, just getting through his class with a passing grade should've been satisfactory to her, so he didn't know what seemed to be bothering her so much. What he wanted to do was pull her aside for some one-on-one tutoring sessions to better figure out her learning style and what he could do to help her, but he figured she was unlikely to take him up on that if offered the choice. Maybe she'd be more likely to comply if I set it forth as a required corrective action for consistently low grades over a certain period? he thought. I'd have to be fair about it, though. Hmm. This one will take some thought. He scribbled a gemstone shape next to her name, then tore off a blank sheet of paper from his notepad and scribbled the same emblem into the corner, jotting down some notes before stuffing it into the stack.
Moving on, Hana flipped to the roster for class 2-B, where two names had been linked by a drawn-on bracket: Kage Munro and Shiro Yamamoto. He liked Shiro, partly because she enjoyed his class but also because the few times he'd happened to see her outside of school, she had always been identifiably emulating the clothing style of an anime or game character he could recognize. What was interesting to him was the dynamic between her and Kage. They were clearly best friends, and while Kage wasn't as enthusiastic about his class as Shiro was, Shiro always seemed to be there to help her out and the two worked well together. Somewhere in Hana's stack of sheets was a reminder to decide on a good way to discourage the temptation to cheat off each other on tests. But he still planned to introduce several pair activities where they'd no doubt team up with each other. The more pressing issue was homework, not particularly concerning the two of them but in general. He had no qualms about students collaborating with each other on assignments, but he knew that merely copying answers did nothing to help the copier in the long run. How many of his students understood that for what it truly meant was anyone's guess, but he was especially wary of the school's prissier students; those who expected their lives to be handed to them on silver platters from off the backs of everyone around them. Though whatever behavior they used to get their way was beyond his jurisdiction to deal with, he knew how to watch for the discrepancies and incongruities that bespoke copying or cheating, and to tailor his lectures and tests in response to teach such students that they would be rewarded for it less than for making sure their own honest efforts were up to snuff.
A few more flipped pages and scribbled notes later, Hana set down his clipboard and slumped into the couch. He gazed up at the clock on the wall and sighed happily; he had gotten more work done this morning than he'd expected, and faster. Maybe he had time to double-check the last few paragraphs of his latest fanfic translation after all. He dug his smartphone out of his pocket, pulled up a text document from an email, and began reading. He didn't even look up when he heard the lounge door open. Instead, he instinctively ducked his head and pulled his phone closer to his face, trying to draw as little attention to himself as possible despite obviously being the only other person in the room.
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