The Lesson, Chapter One

This is Chapter One of my novel, The Lesson...a story

of finding something you never knew existed.

"Raise your hand if you would like to read a color," announced
Mr. Anderson, surveying the room for any inappropriate behavior.
From right to left, his eyes scanned each group of desks, each isle,
the door and then, finally, he regained the courage to turn his back
and began to write.

"Laurie."

"Green, Mr. Anderson. I always want my favorite color."

"Just making sure it's you and not an alien using mind control
over you," laughed the sci-fi loving educator. Mr. Anderson often
made jokes, not for the students to enjoy, but because it put him in
a better mood.

"David, red right?"

7th Grade English classes began and ended the same way, every
day, for the past 10 years. Students knew what to expect from
Mr. Anderson, and Mr. Anderson made it clear what he expected.
Work. Hard work. If students were looking to have fun, they knew
they would not find it in Mr. Anderson's room. Sure, there were
laughs, maybe some jokes, silly comments and possibly a movie or
three during the year, but not fun. Just work. Group work maybe,
but hard work, nonetheless.

It was a known fact that anything said in his classroom

and anything that may have occurred in the presence

of the students and Mr. Anderson could appear on an

assessment. This could have worked in the students'

favor, if they were paying attention, had a great memory

or were great at taking notes! Three years ago, two boys

were discussing the latest video game while Mr. Anderson

was teaching and their exact conversation was used in a

quiz on quotation marks!

Til this day, his students can't figure out how he was able
to teach, listen to their conversation and remember exactly
what the boys said. Consequently, the boys earned lunch
detention for talking during instructional time. If you were

to ask them then or even today, those guys would say

it was well worth it. To have their names and their

conversation used on the quiz made them instant legends!

There was once a fire alarm that interrupted an assembly.
He used this situation as an essay question to measure his
students' ability to create a poem, that incorporated

figurative language, to describe the incident.

Mr. Anderson also used conversations he overheard in the

hallways. He used them in grammar lessons.

Most conversations were spoken using incorrect grammar,

so his students were assigned the task of correcting the

sentences. They were also assigned a week long project

to create a comic strip using those sentences.

"So, today we are going to begin our winter project. We are going
to create a game to help us learn our vocabulary words. This game
can be used in all of your classes so it's very important that we pay
attention and follow all directions."

Could this be true?

A game? A game in Mr. Anderson's class?

Could this be the first game ever played in Mr. Anderson's class?

The student's were...confused and excited, an amazing combination
of emotions to say the least. Mr. Anderson had always made several
comments about how games did not have a place in his classroom,
how playing is for gyms and playgrounds or extra-curricular activities,

not for learning, not in his classroom.

Mr. Anderson's beginning of the year speech began like this:

"This isn't recess or P.E. This is a learning environment. In this

particular learning environment, we must have order. We must

have order, structured procedures and high expectations of

behavior. If one of these things are lacking, effective learning

cannot occur. And if there is one thing that I will not stand for,

it is someone, much less more than one person, hindering

another's education."

Yet, here it was...on this day, Mr. Anderson seemed to contradict
his very being with every word he uttered. He continued his

project introduction speech, "you will be grouped and each group

will be assigned different aspects of the project to complete. If one

group is slack, the entire project will crumble and all of your work

will be for not." Mr. Anderson sometimes used words like slack,

not to try to be cool, but it was one of his many ways of getting his

point across.

Students were in shock. Carrie, who was the youngest of four

siblings, two older sisters and one slightly older brother,

all who had experienced the wonderfully talented Mr. Anderson,

secretly sent her older brother Ronald an instant message

spreading this unbelievable news. Ronald replied, "it must be

a joke or maybe he has finally gone off the deep end!" Another

student, Daniel, actually thought about raising his hand to ask Mr.

Anderson if he were feeling okay, but decided against it.

No one ever wanted to get on Mr. Anderson's bad side. Although

there were not any games (as of yet) in his classroom, Mr. Anderson

would give students a lot of control over how lessons were taught

and how work would be completed. No one wanted to give up

such power and freedom.

There were stories of how Mr. Anderson stripped one class of

their "rights as students." Mr. Anderson did not

speak to them for three weeks! Not even in the hallways or cafeteria!

In fact, before those students were allowed in his classroom, each

had to have a pencil (already sharpened) in one hand and a

binder in the other hand before being allowed to enter his room.

Then, once inside the classroom, all of their assignments would be

on a PowerPoint. The slides went through each section of the

lesson, just like it normally would, only no one read or explained

them. Mr. Anderson would not allow those students to

volunteer to read the color coded slides, which always included

very cool graphics. The colors sometimes represented the

difficulty of words, or the amount of words students had to read.

Mostly, this was a way that Mr. Anderson discovered, as a young

teacher, to get the most reluctant students to participate in his class.

Mr. Anderson believed that all students needed something to

identify with and as adolescents, colors were a big part of their

waredrobe, which in turn, were a big part of their lives. So,

his lessons would always make some kind of connection with

his students.

Each slide was on a timer, so if students didn't

write or read fast enough, the slide would automatically change

and those students would miss out on that information. Anyone

who spoke more than twice would receive a referral to the office.

And the principal supported him! Can you believe that?!

Mr. Anderson was really good at documenting things and

retelling events exactly how they occurred. This was his bread

and butter when it came to discipline. Going against Mr. Anderson

was like going against an army. A kid didn't have a chance!

Mr. Anderson was really stubborn and always kept his word, even

when it seemed improbable. So, for students to know this about

their teacher, how was it possible for him to switch

gears like this? What had happened to Mr. Anderson? Were there

aliens controlling his mind? Is that why he overused that lame joke

on a weekly basis?

No, those were silly questions. The reality was that there

was definitely something going on, but no one wanted to rock this

boat. Think about it. If Mr. Anderson is introducing one game,

who's to say he wouldn't allow more "fun" and "play" to happen

in his class? The possibilities were endless! And anyone

walking by his classroom on this day, at this time, could see these

endless possibilities dance across every 7th grader's mind

simultaneously, as Mr. Anderson introduced this new and exciting,

but very different project.