“I can’t believe you roped me into this,” Nate groaned, resting his head in his hands.
Papers were scattered across the table, and Eric Ikeda, a fellow seventh grade teacher, was busy shuffling and sorting them into piles. Eric had come to Nate in August with a plan to combine the module on China Nate was teaching his Social Studies class with the book Eric’s Language Arts class was reading: Ties That Bind, Ties That Break. After some convincing from Eric and lots of thought, Nate had agreed. He just didn’t realize exactly what he was agreeing to.
“Did you hear me?” Nate asked, peering up at his friend, who had moved on to his laptop, which was apparently far more interesting than anything Nate was saying. “Eric. Seriously, what are you doing?”
“I heard you,” Eric smiled, still tapping away. “I’m not sure what you’re complaining about.”
“This!” Nate exclaimed, gesturing toward the table at the papers strewn around them. “It’s 7:00, don’t you have a wife to get home too?”
“She’s at the beach with her sister,” Eric replied, waving him off. “So, I was thinking next year we add in a group project to wrap this whole thing up. I’m thinking poster boards, presentations…I’m typing up some ideas now. Can you imagine? Cross-curricular group projects!”
Nate stared unblinking at his exuberant friend, but Eric didn’t seem to notice. He just kept nodding, smiling, and typing more ideas into his laptop.
“Dude, you’re not listening to me. It’s great that your definition of an awesome Friday night is drowning in papers, but I don’t want to be here. Me. I don’t.”
Nate wondered how many more times he would have to say it before Eric understood how annoyed he actually was. Thankfully, he seemed to get the message. Sort of. At least he pushed his laptop away, leaned back and peered at him. But he didn’t say anything. And he had that same smirk on his face that said he didn’t really take his complaints seriously. Nate glared back.
“Okay, okay,” Eric laughed, throwing up his arms. “Look, I’m sorry, you’re right, it’s late. We should go. But I can’t believe you’re really that upset. Did you read these papers? Some of them are really, really good. And they’re just drafts!”
“Yeah, they’re just drafts because you convinced me that we should drag this thing out all year. And now you’re already planning next year, and you want to add a presentation to it, like this year wasn’t enough extra work for me!” Nate said as he grabbed every paper in reach and threw them into the pile Eric was meticulously gathering together.
They had agreed back in August to wait until closer to spring to start their students on the assignment they were putting together. That way, Eric could have their students begin reading the book around the time Nate finished teaching his unit on Ancient China. Eric was sure it would help provide solid historical background to draw from and help the students think of ways to connect the two topics in their papers. But they kept having these lengthy collaborative meetings, and Nate constantly found himself shortening lessons and shuffling assignments around, all just to work in time to complete this massive research paper experiment.
Nate wasn’t sure it was worth it, but Eric was so positively sunny. Then again, that was Eric. But there was something to say for giving your friend the benefit of the doubt.
Nate sighed. “And no, I haven’t read them.”
“Ha!”
“I just collected them yesterday, I haven’t had time. And while you were busy making piles over there, I’ve been putting the finishing touches on this joint grading rubric you insisted we make for the final paper,” Nate said, sliding his laptop around so his friend could see.
“Awesome! Email it to me. Oh, and take these,” Eric replied, getting up from the table and holding out the stack of first drafts he had managed to smooth out and straighten. “Read them. I promise you, you will be astounded. See you Monday!’
“Yeah, yeah, see you then.”
* * *
Early Monday morning, Nate walked into Eric’s classroom and dropped the stack of papers onto it with a sense of finality. He had spent all weekend planning the details of the coming week’s assignments, grading quizzes and, of course, reading the cross-curricular papers. He had no intentions of taking it easy on his friend after all of that.
“So?” Eric prodded as a large grin spread across his face.
“Uh…” Nate sighed, dragging out the suspense as long as possible, “what was this about adding a group project next year?”
“I knew it!” Eric declared, almost knocking down his chair as he jumped up. “They were great, right? I told you! Did you read Jerica’s?”
“Yes, you were right,” Nate grinned, shaking his head. It was hard to keep up the gruff pretense when his best friend was practically jumping for joy in front of him. “And yeah, I read it. I haven’t been able to get her to say three words in class, let alone string three sentences together on a quiz. She must have really connected with that book.”
“I know! Okay, so I’ve been brainstorming ways to make this project a little more manageable next year. With a little more planning and organization, I think we turn it into an even better experience for all of us…”
As Nate listened to his friend rattle off more ideas for next year, he found himself actually getting excited. Not Eric-level excited, of course, but excited nonetheless. He had taken a chance on something that seemed like it was paying off. And as much as he liked playing the sarcastic, indifferent bystander, it actually felt pretty great.