For the next few days Julian’s new job occupied most of his time. He had to attend New Staff Orientation as well as building meetings with the principal and his fellow teachers. Then there were the district-wide staff development seminars.
The Friday before Labor Day weekend found Julian working in his room, making out his class record book, getting acquainted with student names, and putting up bulletin boards: one with cartoon characters explaining punctuation, another giving definitions and examples of terms like personification, simile, analogy, metaphor, irony and imagery, and a third board listed classroom rules and expectations. Finally, just before he left for the weekend, he wrote on the blackboard:
Hello! My name is Mr. Reynolds.
Welcome to Sixth Grade Language Arts.
He stood,
