“Miss Nell?” Miranda raised her hand and said, “I think I should be the helper everyday. I’m really good at helping.” Miss Nell answered her by saying, “I’m sure that you are but everyone needs to have a turn.” Everyone was sitting on the circle time rug and Miss Nell was explaining things like ‘jobs’ and ‘centers’. She had told them that there were four different jobs: helper, mail carrier, calendar person, and weather person. She then continued to explain the duties of each job. The helper would hold the door open whenever the class left the room, like to go to recess or to the library. They would also pass out things like papers or snack. If your job is mail carrier, you are to walk the class attendance sheet, along with any other mail, to the office and bring to Miss Nell any mail from the office that is for her. The calendar job duties were to make sure that the correct day, date and month were posted on the calendar as well as any birthdays. If your job is weather person, you need to dress the weather dog every day with the appropriate clothing based on what kind of weather it is.

Miss Nell told them that each Monday she will pick four students and assign each of them a job. If you’re assigned a job, you get to do that job each day for the entire week. Everyone was excited. They all wanted to be one of the first students to get a job. Miss Nell reached into a basket and started pulling out names. Katie was the only one from the ‘giggle’ group to get a job. Everyone was jealous and she knew it. “Miss Nell, I’m so glad you picked me to dress the weather dog,” she said. “I’m a fashion expert.” Everyone giggled. Miss Nell smiled as she said, “I’m sure you’ll do a great job.”

“It’s not fair! I wanted a job! You never pick me!” Miranda called out. Miss Nell comforted her. She said, “I know that it’s disappointing when you don’t get what you want. But you’ll get a turn. This is just the first time.” Miss Nell then went on to say, “We’ve only been at school a few days; I don’t know that it’s fair for you to say that I never pick you. What do you think?” “No, I guess not,” Miranda answered. “But I still really want a job.” “I know you do and you will have one soon,” Miss Nell assured her.

Next, Miss Nell explained centers. There were five centers: Math, Reading, Writing, Science, and Computer. Miss Nell asked, “Does anyone have any questions?” Jerome said, “No.” Several of the other children raised their hands. “How will we know which center to go to?” asked one child. Miss Nell said that she made picture guides for everyone. “How do we know when to go the next center?” asked another one of the students. Miss Nell said that she had a timer. She will set it and when the time is up, everyone is to move to their next center. Aleisha was glad that all of her questions were answered without having to raise her hand. She was too scared to ask a question in front of the whole class. They might laugh at her.

Tyler raised his hand and asked, “When do we get to do the fun things, like painting?” “Tyler, everything is fun!” teased Miss Nell. Tyler started to say, “No, I mean…” Then Miss Nell said, “I know what you mean. I was just teasing you” “There will be time between recess and when we get ready to go home when you’ll be able to choose your own activity. We call it free time. Okay?” “Okay!” said Tyler. “All right, I think we’re ready to get started. You may all go to your cubby and get out your guide and go to your first center stop.” Miss Nell told them.

Jerome was the first one to find his place, which was the Science center. One of the other students at his center was Brian; who, although he didn’t want to admit it, had needed Miranda’s help to figure out his center guide. In fact, Miranda was so busy helping people that she was the last student to get in place. When she did arrive, she was glad to see that Aleisha was also at the Writing center. They were quickly becoming good friends. This was another new and exciting experience and everyone got right to work. They moved from center to center trying to do their best at each stop.

Suddenly, they were all interrupted by a very loud ringing noise. Aleisha started to cry. Miranda asked, “What’s that sound?” Jerome answered, “I think it’s the fire alarm.” Brian said, “Cool, a fire! We’ll get to see the fire trucks! Maybe the school will burn down!” Tyler wasn’t sure what to think. He quickly looked at Miss Nell. He hoped that she knew what to do.