‘Tick tock’ ‘tick tock’ filled the room with its unchanging and monotonous sound. The sounds of rustling filled the air as those in the room who noticed the time tensed up in anticipation of what was to come next. 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… The long and slender member of the trio of hands finally reached its wanted destination. At that moment, a simple, digital unchanging beep vibrated the air with its noise. Those who were observant already were on their feet by the time the sound arrived, but those who weren’t quickly rushed to get their things together in a scramble of both paper, plastic, and fabric. Even the slowest of those who left the room wasted no time to leave the classroom. At last, when the final student went through the archway of metal and wood, a lone person breathed a sigh of relief.
The lone person only had a few minutes to prepare the lesson for the day. Even though her desk was a mess of papers, handouts, and the occasional folder, the teacher quickly knew where to put her hand to grab what she needed. Her many years of experience in the field of instructing was plenty of time to hone her skills and fine tune them. Again, that same tone returned again for another round. The teacher, already prepared for the class, took a seat and waited for the influx of new faces. This time a new tone was added to the mix; it was a more threatening, deep growl. As the final student crossed through the archway, everyone got prepared for the lesson ahead. Almost in unison, as the beep came again confirming the class to begin, a scramble of rustled fabric and the ‘zip’ of many zippers filled the room. Each student pulled out the usual supplies and mix of different color notebooks and folders landed on the desks of the students. The teacher stood up with a nonthreatening vibe and walked casually to the white board in the middle of the wall. As students in the audience readied their pencils, the teacher went to the board and wrote in “Math 101.” In the teacher’s eyes, the look of disbelief in many of her students amused her enough that she let out a small inner chuckle.

On the far side of the room shows a white board with frizzled, worn out tape; that board served the teacher for many years now with countless numbers of words that were written and erased. Even though it was already written on the board, the teacher gave out a small sentence. “Prepare for the test on Friday.” She said, almost in an aggressive tone. All students shuddered at the thought as they all knew that the year was almost over. Some students took it better than others. A small, petite boy near the back of the class took this news with calmness and ease but to the right of him another student, this time with a more muscular body type, began to sweat profusely at the words which cracked through the air. The teacher began her lecture, and at once many pencils and pens were clicked; accompanying it, was the scratch of the writing utensils on pieces of paper.

‘Tick’ ‘tick’ ‘tick’ the clock kept on going. The sound that could be heard by all was heard especially by the teacher. No matter how much she tried to block the sound, it always came back to her. For every hour of the day, the same sound never stopped and may as well soon begin to pierce her very soul. 3… 2… 1…The hands on the clock finally reached what the teacher wanted. The ticking stopped and in its place; the cold, digital beep. At last, the teacher knew her day was almost over. 1:21 PM, the teacher did her usual routine of getting her papers and supplies together. 1:24 PM, she was greeted by her friend, the threatening growl she always heard. 1:25 PM, the penultimate digital beep came once again. The final student rushed in and the teacher began her lesson. 1:45 PM, the teacher ended the lecture early. The students had a small victorious cheer when those words were muttered out. 1:59 PM, the entire class spotted the trio of hands to the finish. 2:10 PM, the sound of zippers and plastic came again, the final time. 2:15 PM, the formal sound of the release beep released all the eager students from their chairs. At last for the rest of the day, the teacher was alone able to be serene in her thoughts. As she packed up all her things to get home, she couldn’t help but notice the clock still ticking even though the day was over. As the teacher crossed through the archway of metal and steel for the last time of the day, the clock still made its routine sound… ‘tick tock’ ‘tick tock’.