Tale as Old as Time [National Treasure] ↠ Riley Poole

1 | T.G.I.F.

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T.G.I.F

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"Miss Gates, I don't get my geometry?"

"I'm sorry," Hannah replied, looking up from her massive pile of correcting to find a student standing in front of her desk. It was one of her fourth graders, Ruth, who stood there bouncing her leg with her geography book in hand.

While an apology to a question wasn't your typical response, Hannah tried to teach her students to actually ask for help and not to assume that someone knows what is wrong. Life skills. She taught many life skills along with the expected curriculum. But Hannah thought making her students into citizens that could not only survive, but thrive in the world was worth the trouble.

Ruth immediately knew why her teacher responded the way she did. She shook her head before rephrasing, "Miss Gates, will you please help me with my geometry?"

Hannah smiled and peered over her desk to see the paper the girl was holding before she slightly chuckled and said, "Geometry is the study of shapes and it won't be very helpful to you with the assignment you're holding." While Hannah knew what the girl wanted, she was also trying to teach her students to be specific - another life skill. It was better that they learned young when the risk was low.

The girl looked at her teacher in confusion and then down at her paper when a fifth-grade girl walked over and whispered to Ruth "That's your geography. Ask for help with your geography."

Hannah winked at Laney, the fifth-grade girl, before looking at Ruth again. "And I would be more than willing to help with geography."

"Oh!" Ruth smiled. "Miss Gates, will you help me with my geography please?"

"Yes, ma'am. Read me the problem first."

Ruth read the problem aloud and before Hannah could even help her, she announced, "Oh! I get it now!" The girl then walked back to her desk. Hannah smiled and glanced back down at her correcting. Sometimes, all it took was reading the problem out loud for them to understand it.

Twenty-seven-year-old Hannah Gates found herself a teacher at a small private school in Maryland where she taught three grades in one classroom: third, fourth, and fifth. She loved that age group. They were still young enough to love their teacher and be impressed by her while still being old enough that they could go into detail with their studies and have meaningful discussions.

For as long as she could remember, Hannah wanted to be a teacher and she had achieved her dream. But she had never expected to be a teacher forever. She wanted to settle down and start a family. The only problem was, she was often far too busy to date...or too shy...never knew if someone was actually interested.....or if she did go on a date, she never got a second one. She was pretty sure it was over five years since anyone had been even remotely interested in her.