Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 125852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125852 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 629(@200wpm)___ 503(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Alister just continues to stare.
“Let’s just get our work done, okay?” I mumble, pulling my laptop and notebook from my backpack and pretending I’m not a little uneasy now.
Maybe I was wrong.
Maybe it’s not so simple between us and we can’t be friends—
The thought freezes in my mind, my eyes snapping up to his.
He sees the moment realization hits, that I finally figured out why he was so stuck after my little speech—my speech where I called Brady my friend.
I rub my lips together anxiously, and his green eyes fly to the movement, holding for several long seconds.
Goose bumps pebble along my arms, making me glad it’s sweater weather these days. I don’t need him calling me out at the sight of them. Besides, I have a boyfriend and that would look bad.
I tug the sleeves of my hoodie over my hands and flip open my laptop.
A million years later, he does the same, and we jump right into phase two of our project.
Surprisingly—to me—Alister has a lot of good concepts when it comes to physical activities for learning, having come to our session today with ideas in mind. It’s obvious he’s been paying attention, understanding the importance this class holds for me.
We’ve been at it for a few hours already when we pause for a break. I sip on my second coffee of the day, smiling as Alister heads back to our table from the café’s front counter.
Alister sets down two toasted bagels and large ice waters, sliding in on my side of the booth this time. Without a word, he turns his laptop toward us and opens a new file, excited to show me what he’s come up with.
“So after I went over what I missed last week, I went back and read the text again. If I’m honest, I wasn’t really sure what it was trying to tell me, so I had to play around on Google a bit.”
“Oh?” I fight a smile, not really sure where this is about to go.
“Yeah. And it’s pretty interesting actually. I realized I’m the type of learner you’re looking to cater to.”
Attention officially caught, I shift in the booth, leaning my back against the wall so I can face him fully.
“Okay so, this is embarrassing, but I’m bad at school—as in I fail more than I pass, and it’s mostly because I pretty much hate everything about learning.”
A laugh leaves me, and Alister grins.
“I’m serious. The only reason I did any assignment in high school was to stay eligible. A 2.0, that’s it. I had a waiver one year because I couldn’t even manage to halfway pass.”
“I don’t love every class either, Alister, and I have to work pretty hard to get the grades I’m after.”
“Exactly.” He snaps his fingers, clicking on the document inside the folder he pulled up. “So what better way to explore and engage, as you called it—”
“Because that is what it’s called,” I laugh.
He grins. “Right, so what better way to explore and engage and test kids’ ability to learn than finding their point of interest? Because I can tell you right now, if a teacher ever told me to take a hundred yards of open field and split it between two teams, then find a way to get one team to the hundred using x, y, z, whatever the hell, I would have known exactly what to do.”
“Football brain.”
“Since I was seven.”
“Seven?” I take another sip of my drink. “That’s even longer than my boys.”
Alister smirks. “At least I’m beating someone somewhere.”
I give him a blank blink, and he chuckles, nudging my knee lightly with his elbow.
“Anyway,” he says, going back to the screen, “since we’re working on kindergartners and whatnot—I had to google what they learned too, by the way—I broke things down into colors, items, and places. Basically, the idea is it will give them an option of three to five colors, and they pick the one they are drawn to the most, then it moves to the next image based on the color they choose, and they pick from that and so on.”
My fingers are dancing along my cup, my mind swimming with what he’s saying. Alister’s eyes are bright, gauging me and seemingly liking what he sees.
He scoots closer, and I move in too, fully intrigued with what he’s about to show me.
“So check this out: obviously I don’t have a program to make this work like I see it in my head, but for the sake of a good grade, I think this can do.”
He pulls up the first set of images; four cubes, each a different color, are on the screen, and he even added little text blocks that spell out the color above the shape. It’s smart, a way to help with potential letter recognition. I wonder if he even realizes this?