Xl - Ordinary Days

Living as a teacher was never my plan from the very beginning. I take a major in literature during college because I love to read various literary works and it was my dream to write my own amazing novel but after graduating I realized that I still have no idea on what to write about and so I end up being an english teacher for senior high schools for a while.

Being a teacher is not easy as I imagined when I was still a student. Everyday is stressful and there are days when we also need to work even during weekends like what is happening today.

...

"Our meeting is all about the fluctuating performance of the students in our school." The chairman stood up and presented to us a graph of the average scores the students have after the midterm examination.

"Everyone of you should do their best to make these grades fly up before graduation or else it will heavily affect our school's name, do you all understand?"

"Yes Sir." everyone suddenly feel pressured about the situation but have no choice but to follow his orders.

It is all the students fault to have their grades go down and yet all the burden is passed to their teachers, what an unfair situation we have here especially to me who teaches a subjects where nobody pays attention.

The next day, I came to school early to talk to my homeroom class and explained the situation briefly and edited some parts of it to make it more dramatic and intense.

"Good morning class! I know that it is rare for me to meet you often even though I'm your homeroom teacher but I have an important announcement to make."

"Are you getting married sir!?" A girl at the shouted from the back of the room and it started the fuzz for everyone to make guess.

"Are you fired from work?"

"Are you going overseas?"

"Did you get someone pregnant?"

"You are all wrong so be QUIET Please! AND LISTEN!" I shouted and I almost fully lost my temper while dealing with this many brats.

Everyone shut their mouths all at once and then stared at me.

"Yesterday the school authorities had a meeting and it is all about the students who are all have a fluctuating grades during midterm and I know that almost all of you here are part of that fluctuating students." everyone bowed their heads while trying to avoid my gaze to each one of them.

"So the school came up with something that can change the situation of our school. There are two news and it is the Good and the Bad news and what do you like to hear fist?"

"The Bad News." the brats answered in unison.

"Ok the bad news is, whoever received a grade of less than 80% on the final examination will not be able to graduate unless you retake the exam and got a perfect score." Everyone was shocked about the news and wants to believe that I am just joking but everything i said is all part of the school chairman's plan and the only thing I will lie about is the Good news I am just about to tell.

"The good news is if the whole class managed to score of more than 85%, a huge reward will be granted so work hard!" there was really no good news from the chairman and it is only me who set that rule and the reward I am talking about is something I haven't decided yet.

I can feel that their eyes widened and sparkled when they heard the word reward and I feel happy that my approach to make them motivated seems to be working well soon because I strongly believed that reward is more motivating than punishment.

"But sir most of our average are barely reaching the 75% passing mark. Maybe it will be tough to reach 80% and more impossible to have the 85% on all subjects." the class representative suddenly stand up and started complaining and soon followed by different complaints by the other students.

"Then study more and stop playing around after school. I'll give you as many quizzes you need to be prepared and scored my final exam perfectly so be prepared."

"What? Sir are you planning to give us a quiz everyday?" another one complains to me.

"I can assure all of you that my approach of helping you in my subject will be the easiest compared to what your other teachers are planning to do so be thankful. That's all for today, see you tomorrow for a quiz." I slowly walked towards the door while listening to their desperate complains.

"Just be thankful that I warned you about being prepared for the other teachers. Stand Hard! Bye!" I closed the door and walked back to our faculty room.

As I entered the room, I can almost see the dark aura surrounding everyone. I can understand how stressed they are while thinking of a solution to lift up the grades of the students. At the corner of the office where my table is placed next to it,I can see the darkest aura, the person who is in the most dangerous situation more than me, the female math teacher named Sakaguchi Reina. I walked towards my table and she didn't even notice when I sit down next to her.

"Sakaguchi-san are you alright?" I asked her while she was looking to the void of nothingness.

"Sakaguchi-san are you there?" she is not even responding.

"Sakagu--"

"Ahhh!." I was cut off when she noticed me and she was surprised to me sitting close next to her.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'm just worried that you'll get sucked in your thoughts completely."

"Ah hahaha. I'm just a little worried about my subject. I know that math is hard and it's my favorite subject but how can I make my students learn if they are not even listening to me during class discussion." ~sigh~

"Did you already try to be a terror teacher?"

"No. I think it's impossible for me to even scare one child at the kindergarten.."

"Hmmm.... then do you want to try my approach?"

"What is it? Does it need me to make more talking?"

"No. Actually it's very simple. Just give them quizzes everyday until they het used to it."

"But I think the students will get angry about it and my reputation will get bad to the kids."

"Don't worry. I am already doing it but I'm still being loved by my advisory class so you don't have to worry about."

"Uhhhm thanks."

"And if the students started complaining. Just call me and I'll be there to silence those brats."

"Ahahaha thanks a lot." finally shehe smiled.

Almost a month passed by so easily and it is already February, a month for couples and an annoying month for a single like me but I was thankful to be a busy teacher during this times so I can forget about it.

The students' grades in my subject is steadily increasing and they keep asking me about the reward they will get everytime I announced the results of their quizzes.

There is still one month before the final exam and the graduation ceremony and right now, I feel safe of the coming results because Nao gave me some probabilities yesterday when I met him and he said that it was 100% probable for all of students to pass the 80% mark and 89% probable that they will all reach the 85% mark I set for them.

I don't know if I should be happy about the 89% probability or worried of thinking of what the reward I should give in case they all got it.