No Messin' with My Lesson

by Nancy Krulik

  But which home should she go to? She couldn’t go to her house. Not as long as she looked like Mrs. Derkman. As she walked home, Katie began to worry. This was the longest she’d ever spent as someone else.

  Katie hoped the magic wind would come back soon. If it didn’t, Katie might wind up eating dinner with Freddy Bear Derkman!

  Just then, the door to Mrs. Derkman’s house swung open. But it wasn’t the magic wind that did it. It was Mr. Derkman.

  “Surprise, Snookums,” he called out as he walked toward Katie. “I got out of work early.”

  “Oh, hello, Mr. Derk . . .” Katie began. “I mean, Freddy Bear.”

  Mr. Derkman reached out his arms. “How about a kissy-poo, Snookums?” he asked. He puckered up his lips for a big smooch.

  Yuck! Katie certainly didn’t want to give Freddy Bear a kissy-poo! But how could she avoid it?

  “Ruff ! Ruff !” Just then, Pepper came running over to Katie. He rubbed his back up against her knees and barked happily. Katie bent down and scratched him gratefully behind the ears.

  Pepper licked Katie on the nose. He knew she wasn’t really Mrs. Derkman. Pepper would know his Katie anywhere.

  But Snowball didn’t know who Katie was. She ran up and sniffed at Katie. Then she looked up, confused. This person looked like her human mommy, she smelled like her human mommy, but somehow Snowball knew that she wasn’t Mrs. Derkman. Snowball began to bark wildly.

  “I guess she’s hungry,” Mr. Derkman said. “I’ll take her inside and give her some food.”

  As Mr. Derkman went back into the house, Katie breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for dogs. But Katie knew she couldn’t avoid kissing Mr. Derkman forever—at least not as long as she was Mrs. Derkman.

  Just then, Katie felt a cool breeze blowing on the back of her neck. Katie looked up at the trees. The leaves were still. She looked down at the grass. Not a blade was moving.

  The magic wind was back.

  Within seconds, the wind was swirling around her like a giant tornado. Katie felt like she could be blown away at any minute. Quickly, she grabbed onto a tree and shut her eyes, tight.

  And then it stopped. Just like that.

  Slowly, Katie opened her eyes. She looked down at her feet. The sensible leather shoes were gone, and there were platform sneakers in their place. Instead of a skirt, Katie was wearing jeans, with laces down the sides. She put her hands to her face. She wasn’t wearing glasses anymore.

  Just then, Katie’s mother came outside. “There you are, Katie,” her mother said. “How was school?”

  Katie smiled brightly. She was back! “School was okay,” she said.

  “Anything exciting happen?”

  Katie knew she couldn’t tell her mother what had happened today. Her mother wouldn’t believe her. Katie wouldn’t have believed it either, if it hadn’t happened to her.

  “Nah,” Katie said finally. “It was just a regular day.”

  Chapter 9

  Most of the kids in class 3A were already on the playground by the time Katie arrived at school the next day. But they weren’t playing or running around. They were busy watching as Mr. Kane spoke to Mrs. Derkman. The principal did not look happy.

  “Your class was out of control yesterday,” he told Mrs. Derkman.

  “I know,” Mrs. Derkman admitted sadly. “I’m not sure how that happened.”

  “What do you mean?” Mr. Kane asked.

  “Well, I mean, I know what happened. But it’s almost like that wasn’t me up there in the front of the room.” Mrs. Derkman sounded very confused.

  “It certainly looked like you,” Mr. Kane told her.

  “It was me,” Mrs. Derkman said. “I mean, at least I think it was. But I didn’t feel like me. Oh, I don’t know what to think.”

  Mr. Kane shook his head. “Well, it doesn’t matter now. It doesn’t seem as though you’ll be winning the Teacher of the Year Award this time around.”

  Mrs. Derkman looked like she was about to cry.

  “Boy, Mrs. Jerkman looks unhappy. Mr. Kane must be really mad at her,” George told the other kids.

  “That’s not nice, George,” Katie said.

  “What?” George asked her.

  “Calling her Mrs. Jerkman,” Katie told him.

  “We always call her that,” Kevin said.

  “It’s still not nice.”

  The other kids stared at Katie. Was she really standing up for their teacher?

  “Mrs. Derkman isn’t nice to us, either,” Suzanne reminded Katie. “She’s very strict. And she gets mad a lot.”

  “That’s because we’re not always very good in class,” Katie reminded her. “We pass notes and whisper.”

  “Yeah, well, Mrs. Derkman writes notes, too,” George argued. “She sent one to my mother last week. And it wasn’t a nice note, either!”

  Katie rolled her eyes. “What about yesterday?” she asked the kids. “Everybody was yelling at each other during math. The judge from that contest saw the whole fight.”

  “How do you know what happened?” George asked Katie. “You were in Mr. Kane’s office all day.”

  Of course, Katie had been in the classroom. But she couldn’t tell the other kids that. So, instead, she said, “I heard about it. It sounds like everyone was mad at each other.”

  “But we made up,” Mandy told Katie. “And we wrote nice things about each other. The judge from the contest saw us doing that, too.”

  “Yeah, he seemed happy about that,” Miriam added. “He was really smiling when he left.”

  Katie shrugged. “But he wasn’t happy enough to make Mrs. Derkman the Teacher of the Year. She really wanted that award. We blew it for her.”

  “She blew it for herself,” George said. “She jumped up on a desk and whistled. If I did that, she’d send me to the principal’s office.”

  “Yeah,” Kevin agreed.

  Katie gulped. George was right. Maybe if she hadn’t jumped up on that desk, Mrs. Derkman would have had a chance. Now Katie felt worse than ever. “Mrs. Derkman deserves that award. She works really hard. Her feet hurt at the end of the day,” Katie insisted.

  Jeremy looked at her strangely. “How do you know?” he asked.

  “I . . . er . . . well, she stands up at the board so much, I just figure they would hurt,” Katie said quickly. “Besides, Mrs. Derkman might not be the nicest teacher in the school, but we learn a lot with her. We’re the only class who studied geography this year. And we’re the only ones who got to do research projects on things that interested us.”

  The kids couldn’t argue with that. They had learned a lot in third grade. For a minute, everyone was quiet.

  “We should make it up to her,” Mandy said finally.

  “I’m going to try to be extra good today,” Miriam vowed.

  “Me, too,” Zoe agreed.

  “I guess I will, too,” Kevin said. He turned to Suzanne. “That means you can’t ask me to pass any notes to Katie.”

  “I won’t,” Suzanne agreed. “I’m not going to write any notes today.”

  It sounded like everyone was going to try to make Mrs. Derkman happy today. Everyone except George, that is. He hadn’t said anything about being good in class. All the kids turned to look at him.

  “Why are you all staring at me?” George asked.

  “Because we want you to be nice to Mrs. Derkman today,” said Miriam.

  “Yeah,” agreed Zoe.

  “That means no jokes, George,” Kevin said, laughing.

  “Oh, boy,” replied George.

  “George, please be nice to Mrs. Derkman today,” Katie pleaded.

  George sighed. “Do I have to?”

  “Come on, George,” Kevin said. “If I have to be good, so do you. Besides, it will really freak her out if you’re good.”

  George smiled brightly. He liked that idea. “Okay,” he agreed. “But just for today.”

  Katie looked at her friends and grinned. Mrs. Derkman wasn’t going to get a big tro
phy. But she was going to have an easy day teaching class 3A. Surely that would make her happy.

  Chapter 10

  The kids were all true to their word. No one spoke without raising their hand. No one passed any notes in class. No one chewed gum, or stared at the clock, or doodled in their notebook.

  But Mrs. Derkman didn’t seem to notice how well her students were behaving. She just frowned and sighed a lot.

  At the end of the day, Mrs. Derkman told the kids to open their free reading books. Usually, Mrs. Derkman watched the kids as they read to make sure no one misbehaved. But today, Mrs. Derkman stared out the window. She didn’t seem to notice the class at all.

  Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Mr. Kane walked into the classroom. He was carrying a gold trophy.

  Mrs. Derkman turned and looked at him in confusion. “What is this for?” she asked. “I don’t understand.”

  “This is for you,” Mr. Kane said. “It’s from the Cherrydale Teacher of the Year Award Committee.”

  “But you said I didn’t win,” Mrs. Derkman reminded him.

  “You didn’t win Teacher of the Year. That went to a teacher at the middle school.”

  “Then what is that trophy for?” Mrs. Derkman asked him.

  “It’s a special award,” Mr. Kane said. “It’s the first time they’ve ever given it.”

  “What’s it for?” Katie asked excitedly, forgetting that she wasn’t supposed to call out in class.

  Mrs. Derkman must have forgotten that rule, too. She didn’t yell at Katie. Instead she asked, “Yes, what is it for?”

  Mr. Kane looked at the plaque on the base of the trophy. “This award is presented to Mrs. Barbara Derkman for her creative lesson on consideration and caring for one another’s feelings,” he read.

  Katie smiled. She knew the judge had liked that part of the class.

  Mr. Kane gave Mrs. Derkman her trophy. “The contest judge called to tell me he liked the way you were able to get your students to apologize and see the good in one another,” he said. Then he added, “Asking the students to write nice things about each of their class-mates was a great idea.”

  “Oh,” Mrs. Derkman said. “I guess you’re talking about that pile of papers on my desk.”

  “You sound like you don’t know where those papers came from,” Mr. Kane laughed.

  Mrs. Derkman didn’t say anything. The truth was, she wasn’t completely sure about anything that had happened yesterday.

  “Anyway, he was really impressed with the way you were able to talk to your students on their own level. He said you almost sounded like a third-grader yourself.”

  Katie choked back a laugh. Mrs. Derkman had sounded like a third-grader yesterday because she was a third-grader. But, of course, Katie was the only one who knew that. And she wasn’t going to tell anyone.

  “I’m sure your class is very proud of you,” Mr. Kane told Mrs. Derkman. He started to clap for her. The kids clapped, too.

  “I’m proud of them,” Mrs. Derkman told Mr. Kane. “I may not be the teacher of the year, but 3A is definitely Cherrydale’s Class of the Year. To celebrate, I’m not giving any homework today. I want you all to go home and play!”

  The class cheered even louder.

  “Does this mean we can stop being good now?” George whispered to Katie as the class cheered for their teacher.

  Before Katie could answer him, she felt a cool breeze on the back of her neck. Oh, no! Was the magic wind back again? Was it going to change her into someone else right here in front of all her friends? The magic wind had never come when other people were around before. But there was a first time for everything.

  “Katie, you’d better close that window,” Mrs. Derkman said. “That wind isn’t good for Speedy. He might catch a cold.”

  Katie breathed a sigh of relief. If Mrs. Derkman felt the breeze, then the magic wind hadn’t come back. At least not right now. But it could come back anytime, and turn Katie into anyone.

  She hurried to close the window. She never knew who the wind might turn her into next. It could turn her into Speedy again! And the last thing Katie would want to be turned into was a hamster with a cold.

  For now, though, Katie was herself. And that made her very happy. After all, of all the people the magic wind had turned her into so far, Katie Carew was the one she liked best.

  An Apple for the Teacher

  This apple graham cracker snacker is a snack even Mrs. Derkman can’t resist.

  You will need: 2 red delicious apples

  1 cup lemon juice

  ½ cup chunky peanut butter

  2 tablespoons honey

  ½ tsp. cinnamon

  6 whole graham crackers

  A helpful adult

  Here’s what you do: Ask an adult to core the apples and cut each one in half. Then cut each half into three wedges (so you have 12 apple wedges). Dip the wedges in lemon juice to keep them from browning. Place the wedges in a single layer on a microwavable plate or baking dish. Cover the wedges loosely with waxed paper. Ask an adult to microwave the wedges on high for 3 ½-4 minutes (until apples are tender). Drain the apples on a paper towel.

  In a small bowl, combine the peanut butter, honey, and cinnamon. Snap the graham crackers in half to make 12 squares. Spread a layer of the peanut butter mixture on each of the six graham cracker squares. Top each square with the remaining graham cracker squares to make sandwiches.

  Makes six snacks.