Monday

6 days, 9 hours and 43 seconds. That’s how long its been since Dylan moved to Beaufort, South Carolina. It has been two weeks since he left Colorado. It’s a new school and new friends. Dylan has had trouble adjusting to his environment. After finding his class, he took a seat in the back row. Maybe the teacher won’t call on me. Dylan is in 10th grade. He became quiet until the class started. Once the bell rang, the teacher came in with a stack of papers.
“Good morning class” said the teacher.
“Good morning” said the class.
This was a public school. There were many students. There were social groups from jocks to emos to honor kids.
This is a biology classroom. The was full of diagrams and models of living organisms. There is a model of a plant cell to the right of the board and a chromosome poster in the corner.
Mrs. Ross began speaking to the class. It was a long class for Dylan. He made a couple of friends but not enough to create a social crowd. “Take out your biology text book and turn to page. 47.” Dylan turned to the page and looked at the many diagrams and definitions. The heading read “Ancestors of the Past.” The passage explained the past life that happened four million years ago. Dylan flipped to the next page and found a diagram of the many creatures that survived in the past. Dylan was so caught up in the evolutionary tree that he almost missed the teacher’s instructions.
“Class, you have until Wednesday to write an essay on evolutionary prior from the chapter. This is worth 40 points; I suggest you work on it tonight.
Make sure to include details and put in effort into your work.” said Mrs. Ross
“How long should the project be?” Dylan raised his hand.
“As long as you want depending on how much information you want to incorporate in it” replied from Mrs. Ross.
As Dylan looked up, the bell rang three times. Dylan is very good at keeping up on his tasks and bringing them in on time. He is one of the best students in the class. Dylan was one of the top ten students in his previous school who have received a ribbon for best curricular achievement. He stepped out of the classroom and said good bye to the teacher. Time for lunch. Dylan rushed to his friends to find a good seat at the café (cafeteria).

Tuesday
Two of his friends, Will and Kyle went with Dylan to the library to work on the biology assignment. Dylan looked at the rubric and thought that this was not a problem to work on it. Dylan and his friends walked to a table by the window. The library is a peaceful environment to work in. In the children’s section, a mother and a daughter silently searched for a book about a cat. In the main entrance, the librarian at the checkout desk diligently scanned the books from the drop off bin.
“So, what are you going to put on your evolution tree, Kyle?” asked Dylan.
“I’m not sure; I need to refer back to the text book” Kyle replies.
“I’m going to add lots of pictures to include on my project” answered Will.
Maybe I should add a bunch of images too. Maybe this way it would seem like I put in a lot of work. Dylan went to a computer and logged on to the internet. He typed in the search box “change in animals.” On the screen, displays many pictures of different extinct creatures. It is now 4:43 pm. Forty minutes have passed by. Only a quarter of the project was finished. The clock slowly ticked seconds by seconds. The clock now showed 5:30. It’s been a long day for Dylan. Dylan feels as if it’s time to go home.

“Good luck with the rest of your project” said Dylan

“Thanks, you too” said the other two.
Dylan carried his project out the library in the car. He went to finish the project at home.

Wednesday

Today’s the day where the class hands in their project. Dylan found his classmates walking in the classroom. The two minute bell rang. I guess it’s time for me to get into class. Dylan walked in proudly as if he received the news that he got a car. The class became talkative until Mrs. Ross came in.

“OK class, it’s time to hand in your project” said the teacher.
The class went to hand in their project row by row to the teacher. Big sheets of paper were being lifted as if they were clouds hovering over each person.

“Open up your text book and answer the questions at the end of the chapter” said the teacher.


“I will try to grade some of these projects while you work on the text book work.”

“Get going, I am here if you need help”

After fifteen minutes passed by, Dylan had a question. Once Mrs. Ross saw Dylan’s hand rise, she waved him to come to desk. Dylan walked over to the teacher. Dylan put the paper in front of her and asked “How is energy produced in the cell?” asked Dylan
As the teacher answered his question, Dylan zoned out. He noticed that his project was the one Mrs. Ross was grading. He noticed that there were many comments on the project. After glancing at it for a while, Dylan headed back to his seat. He wondered, I thought I thought I was going to do well on the project. Dylan became baffled. He started to worry.

Five minutes was left till the bell rang. Everybody started closing their books and started gathering their backpack for the next class. While the students rustled with their papers, Mrs. Ross called Dylan up. Mrs. Ross took out Dylan’s project and said

“I don’t understand this.”


“Where are all the learning materials that were from the text book?”

“I have read somewhere that you were a great academic student.”
Dylan wanted to be different in this school but now realize that he should change back to who he was, an excellence student. He didn’t know what to say. What have I done.

“I know I’m not supposed to but I will accept it for you. I will allow you to redue the project again, but make sure it’s well organized and neat. I know you are a great student in my class.”
Mrs. Ross just made Dylan smile toward the end of the last sentence. Dylan took back the project and put it in his backpack
“Thank you for this opportunity” said Dylan.
Dylan went home and rushed to get another big sheet of paper. Dylan started out by drawing a shape like a tree then adding images to the “branches.” After several hours, his work has looked better. There were great description and explanations that lead from one evolution to the other. He felt confident that he would receive a good grade.

Thursday

In the morning of school right before he left to go to his other classes, Dylan walked to Mrs. Ross’s class around the corner. Once he got to the outside of the classroom, a note appeared on the door saying,

“I am out for a meeting. I should be back in forty minutes.”
Dylan turned the door knob and suddenly it opened. I guess Mrs. Ross forgot to lock the door before she left. Dylan stepped in the classroom and took out his project from his backpack. He looked at the others that were left on the table, comparing the quantity of his work to the other students. Dylan left a note on Mrs. Ross’s desk.