Chapter 4 Director of Teaching

  Liu Ya Qian walked out of her dormitory and thought for a moment before heading towards the duty room.

  Old Liu was still sitting there. The water pipe had long been empty, but he was still sucking on it, perhaps savoring the lingering flavor inside.

  Next to the school gate is the school store, which was previously told by Zhang Min to Liu Ya Qian that this store was opened by the chairman's younger brother, so when buying things, it's best to buy them in this store, and never bring anything from outside into the school, including books, snacks, etc. for students. That would be a big taboo.

  "Hello, excuse me, where is Director Ma's office?" Liu Ya Qian asked while carefully sizing up the old man. According to what Director Jiang said, this old man makes millions just from admissions every year!

  Old Liu didn't make any move at all and didn't even intend to respond.

  Upon hearing Liu Ya Qian's voice, a person emerged from the school store with a very northern accent and said: "Teacher Liu, looking for Director Ma's office? I'll tell you, it's in that room over there. See it? It's the first room on the left."

  The person speaking was Cao Bao Kun, the younger brother of Chairman Cao. Cao Bao Kun had dark skin and a short, stout build that made him almost identical to his older brother, the chairman.

  Cao Baokun's facial features look very rough, but it is clear that his skeleton is sturdy, muscles are faintly visible, and there is no excess fat on his body. He speaks loudly.

  Compared with his over 60-year-old brother Cao, the chairman of the board, Cao Baokun is only 44 years old this year, divorced and has a young boy in first grade.

  Such a person, to Liu Ya Qian, is a "terrorist". Think about it, Cao Bao Kun is divorced, so he must be looking for another woman. I, Liu Ya Qian, am here, who else can Cao Bao Kun look up to besides me?

  And he is Cao Baokun, whose identity is special, he is the younger brother of Chairman Cao!

  Liu Ya Qian nodded and hurriedly ran off, rushing all the way to Ma Ming's office.

  Watching Liu Ya Qian leave, Cao Bao Kun suddenly "gulped" and swallowed his saliva. Smacking his lips, Cao Bao Kun hummed a Peking Opera tune as he walked into the store.

  Old Liu suddenly turned his head and looked towards the back of Liu Ya Qian, and in an instant, a strange expression flashed across his eyes... Uh, that kind of expression can only be described as strange.

  "Director Ma, hello!" Liu Ya Qian stood at the door, softly calling out.

  This is the office of Director Ma and Director Jiang, but it seems that Director Jiang has gone out. There's only one man who looks slightly plump and over fifty years old. His skin tone is yellowish, his hair is thick and combed back in a pompadour style, wearing a suit and leather shoes, looking very formal.

  He wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses, with a cigarette tucked between his fingers. On his desk, the ashtray was filled with cigarette butts, and the surrounding area was also covered in a haze of smoke. His tea cup contained more tea leaves than water, and he was none other than Director Ma Ming.

  Ma Ming's desk was placed opposite Director Jiang's, with Ma Ming facing away from the door and towards the interior of the room.

  He slightly turned his body, and Ma Ming said with a sideways face and lowered head: "It's Teacher Liu, please come in."

  Liu Ya Qian walked in, the smell of smoke inside was overwhelming, but Liu Ya Qian still held back her cough.

  This Director Ma gives people a very oppressive feeling, this is Liu Ya Qian's first impression of him.

  "Director Ma." Liu Ya Qian bowed her head and sat down in the chair beside him, showing respect to Director Ma. Liu Ya Qian thought to herself: This Director Ma is probably a man of great ability.

  He flicked his cigarette ash and Director Ma said, "It's like this, the chairman has already told me about your situation. What do you think? How would you lead a sixth-grade class?"

  Sixth grade! This is the graduating class! Liu Ya Qian's heart skipped a beat, but she didn't say anything, waiting for Director Ma to continue.

  "The sixth grade is not easy to manage, but the school leaders hold you in high esteem. If you agree, I'll take you to the classroom right away to take a look and get familiar with the head teachers of the two classes."

  "Two classes! What am I supposed to bring?" Liu Ya Qian asked.

  "Oh, Chinese language? You don't know?" Director Ma asked back.

  "Oh."

  "Our school has such a schedule, every day starting at 6:30 in the morning with morning exercises, followed by self-study, then breakfast at 7:15. Then classes start and continue until 11:15 when we have lunch."

  Liu Ya Qian: "When eating, should students be accompanied by teachers?"

  Director Ma took a puff of smoke and said: "Students in grades 1, 2, and 3 are lined up by their class teachers and taken to the cafeteria for meals. Students in grades 4, 5, and 6 are responsible for bringing food back to the classroom to eat. Class teachers must eat with the students in the classroom. As a vice-teacher, you can just go to the cafeteria to eat. You don't need to supervise morning or afternoon exercises either, that's all taken care of by the class teachers."

  "Oh."

  Ma Ming: "After lunch, rest in the afternoon, ring at 2:30 pm. During this time, students are not allowed to go downstairs. Each teacher has to be on duty once a big week, being on duty means maintaining school discipline, catching students who run around, and the teacher on duty can only rest after 9 pm. You will be on duty every first Saturday of the big week. Oh, by the way, there's a movie night on Sunday evening, and the class advisor is in charge."

  She should take notes! Liu Ya Qian's brain isn't that clever and doesn't have the ability to remember everything she hears.

  Director Na didn't think much about it either, he just said his part, as if once he finished speaking, his responsibility was fulfilled. The rest, he didn't care about.

  Ma Ming continued: "Roll call at 7:40 in the morning, roll call at 2:40 in the afternoon, deduct 40 points for those who are not present. There are three classes in the afternoon, after which is extracurricular activity, extracurricular activity lasts for 45 minutes, then dinner, followed by evening self-study, two classes of evening self-study, and it's over after finishing. Leave can be taken, but no matter what kind of leave, 40 points will be deducted every day."

  "Heavens! What does this mean? Whatever holiday is it? Even maternity leave has to be deducted? Forty days a year! This is really not in line with humanized management!" Liu Ya Qian thought to herself.

  "English classes started in the third grade, and the teacher who taught Chinese also taught English. However, for the sixth-grade graduating class, it didn't matter whether they had English classes or not, as long as they passed the language and math exams."

  What? There isn't a specialized teacher for English class? Liu Ya Qian was secretly shocked.

  "In addition, as a class teacher, apart from not taking another main course and physical education, all other subjects such as music, art, science, ideology and morality, computer science, etc. are taken care of. Of course, that's the class teacher, you don't have to bother with that anymore. However, next semester, the school is planning to let you take on the role of class teacher, so you need to work hard and strive for it. The salary for being a class teacher will be higher, in addition to the class teacher allowance, there's also an over-quota subsidy."

  "What is over-allowance, Director Ma?" Liu Ya Qian asked with a smile.

  "It's like in every class, there are normally fifty students. If one more student is added, the head teacher gets an additional twenty yuan, and the deputy teacher only gets ten yuan. This applies to both graduating classes which don't have enough students, with one class having thirty-nine students and the other having forty-one students..." Ma Ming replied very meticulously.

  "Oh, I see. Only two classes in sixth grade?" Liu Ya Qian felt that this was too few. With only two parallel classes, where's the talk of teaching competition?

  "It's not just sixth grade, every grade in our school only has two classes." Ma Ming said this as if the school wasn't his, but that was indeed the case.

  "Oh." Liu Ya Qian nodded slightly, as if in thought, indicating that she had listened very seriously and understood.

  Ma Ming also talked a lot about discipline, school curriculum, management, and what teachers should do, including writing lesson plans, until the bell rang for the end of morning self-study.

  "Have you finished your morning self-study? Did you bring a lunch box? Come on, let's go to the cafeteria to get some food." Ma Ming extinguished his seventh cigarette.

  Since Liu Ya Qian sat here, Ma Ming Yan has been smoking one after another, and seven cigarettes have been solved.

  Liu Ya Qian had already eaten breakfast, but in order to get familiar with the process of getting food in the cafeteria, she immediately went back to her dormitory, grabbed a lunch box and followed Director Ma to the cafeteria.

  Ma Ming led Liu Ya Qian to the back hall, directly from the back hall to get food, and the back hall was where the kitchen was located. There were not many people coming here to get food, and the head chef and several other kitchen staff had already eaten early. Ma Ming and Liu Ya Qian both served themselves, and breakfast was simple: porridge, steamed buns, and pickled vegetables.

  The homeroom teacher is in charge of one class, and all the homeroom teachers are female. They have lunch with the students together in the classroom after serving them food along with the class director.

  "You're eating so little?" Ma Ming asked.

  Liu Ya Qian smiled: "Actually I've already eaten, just need to drink some porridge."

  The two had lunch together, and then Ma Ming took Liu Ya Qian to the office. The two ate in Ma Ming's office.

  Just as they were eating, Director Jiang came over and brought "welfare" - a sausage specifically for Liu Ya Qian. However, Liu Ya Qian insisted on not having it, so Director Jiang didn't give it to Director Ma, but ate it himself instead.

  Liu Ya Qian keenly felt that these two directors didn't get along, they seemed to be quite unenthusiastic towards each other. Alas! Where there are people, there is struggle, this is the way of the world. It seems that schools are no exception either.

  Liu Ya Qian knew that the teachers in school were also a mixed bag, and she needed to be careful.

  After dinner, Ma Ming called over two students and had them take both his and Liu Ya Qian's lunchboxes to wash.

  Liu Ya Qian suddenly understood something - everything here was originally supposed to be done by students.

  It's almost 7:40, Ma Ming stood up and said, "Let's go, to the office, for roll call."

  Liu Ya Qian followed him out.

  "This is the office of the math group." As they passed by a small office, Ma Ming pointed and said. Liu Ya Qian noticed that there were only six or seven desks in this office.

  This math group office is just past the chairman's office, first room on the right in the first floor corridor.

  And the second room is a classroom, but now this classroom is the office of the language department. In the office of the language department, there are more than a dozen desks. At this moment, several teachers were still eating breakfast in the office, they were talking about something, when they saw Director Ma bringing Liu Ya Qian in, they immediately stopped talking.

  Liu Ya Qian had a hunch that they might be talking about her, this new teacher.

  "You just sit at this desk." Director Ma said, leading Liu Ya Qian to a office desk.

  This is a desk against the window, with dust all over it. The books on the desk are in disarray, including notebooks, exercise books, lesson plans and so on.

  Isn't this obviously done by someone?

  "Oh, this teacher is gone, and you're here to replace him." Ma Ming said directly.

  So that's how it is. Why did he leave? Leaving now will have a predictable impact on the students.

  But now the most important thing is not to ask why this teacher wants to leave, but to seize the time to sort out and tidy up this office desk. All books, homework, textbooks, etc., will start from here!

  Liu Ya Qian obviously felt very wronged. She had already made up her mind, thinking that since she was transferred halfway and not given any new textbooks or lesson plans, if the students didn't learn well, it couldn't be blamed on her, anyway, when the time came, she would have something to say.

  The teachers came one after another, first of all were the Chinese department's Qu Qi and others, all of whom were female teachers.

  Liu Ya Qian first wiped the office chair clean and sat down before speaking. There were desks in front of and behind her, it was a bit cramped, but fortunately Liu Ya Qian's figure allowed her to sit there, still quite "spacious".

  In a moment, it was 7:40 sharp. The math teachers had also arrived, and the physical education teacher came too, seemingly the only male teacher.