More to You ✔

Chapter 6 - Classroom Hacks (Mitch)

Mitch pulled up a chair in the back row of Maria's primary four class beside a few of her chattier kids. Two boys looked him over with quirked eyebrows and whispered in Thai about Ms. Maria getting replaced. Despite what Mitch said to them last month, the internalized idea that her darker skin made her a worse teacher stuck with the kids. He would not feed into their assumptions.

He raised an eyebrow at them and stretched out his legs. "You should worry about yourself, not Ms. Maria," he spoke in Thai.

"Why Mr. Mitch?" Hero asked in English.

"Mr. Shawn and I are recruiting for next year's P5-1 class."

Hero tensed and took his books out of his bag along with the others. The brightest and most well-behaved kids, and above-average ones with parents with the deepest pockets, were placed in the coveted slash one class. It was supremely de-motivating for those who never made it into that class and turned their lack of success into a self-fulfilling prophecy. He always told his grade-five students he taught every class like they were slash-one and expected their learning to follow the same trajectory. Often if they worked hard and believed in themselves, the results were similar to the 'smart' classes. But not every teacher taught like him, so he could use the assumptions to manipulate their thinking to Maria's advantage.

The boys stared at their teacher, who grinned and circulated to greet the students, most of whom perked up at her praise and compliments. She was a natural people person; it was managing kids she seemed less comfortable with, given what he'd seen in the hallways and what she'd shared with him.

With the cover he gave the students, he took notes throughout Maria's lesson, though he had to remind himself to focus on her teaching instead of how great her ass looked in that tight skirt, otherwise, his advice would be useless. He'd offered to give her some unofficial tips to help with her classroom management a few weeks ago since he'd been teaching here for almost three years already, and she'd been here a few months.

"Does anyone remember what happened to St—" Their eyes met and Maria froze "—Stella in the last chapter?"

A few students called out the answers, and she accepted the responses without reminding them to raise their hands. The class got noisier, and she ran her thumb across the pages of the novel they were studying as her gaze darted to the louder kids. Mitch inclined his head toward the chatty children near the windows, and she hurried over there. Her discomfort transported Mitch to his first practicum placements, expecting perfection from himself and his students when teaching was an art of adapting to what the kids needed each day. Soon, she had the class's attention again and began to read aloud.

By the end of the class, she'd gotten through most of the lesson outline she gave him, skipping a part here and there. She dismissed the students one at a time to prepare for lunch, and they lined up in a more orderly fashion than they had last month. Mitch's students waved and bowed when they saw him.

"How bad was it?" Maria whispered as she and Mitch stood at the front of the line.

"You're doing great."

She bit her lip. "You took a lot of notes."

"Your lesson was so brilliant I had time to work on my latest erotic, graphic novel," he murmured to her. The students were too distracted by their conversations to notice.

"No wonder the boys were so interested in what you were doing."

Mitch barked out a laugh he hadn't expected as the kids finished putting on their shoes. They led the class down to the cafeteria together, which felt a little odd without his students to survey. When he glanced back at Maria's, the back row of kids straightened like soldiers.