Chapter 11

Ru’s classroom was almost ready to greet students Monday morning. She just needed Candice to come help her with a few things, and she’d be all ready, which was a good thing because that day—Friday—would be full of meetings. She always wondered why administrators thought it was a good idea to plan a day of trainings on the last possible day before students came in, as if teachers wouldn’t be completely distracted, wanting to be in their classrooms.

She’d met her students the night before at Meet the Teacher, and she just knew this was going to be a great year. There were some familiar faces since she’d been teaching here long enough to start having siblings of former students. A few of the parents told her how happy they were that they had another child in her class. That was one of the rewarding parts of being a teacher, getting to interact with families who really appreciated what she was doing. Sometimes, paren