A Symbol of Teaching Excellence

Note to reader, all characters in the story are 18-years-old or older, even if not specifically stated in the text.

Barbra Ann walked into her senior physics course at the high school she had been working at for the past 3 years since graduating from university. It was well into second semester and she felt the class was in a good rhythm. Ms. Ann knew her student's strengths and weaknesses. Additionally, her student knew what was expected of them. Despite all of her student being seniors who were months away from college, she pressed them not to slack.

Ms. Ann felt she was progressing well as a teacher. She knew the material she was teaching very strongly and had learned and deployed a variety of teaching techniques. Her students each year showed an upward trend in test scores. The school principal thought she had the potential to be teacher of the year if she kept on this path. However, her one weakness was making personal connections with students. She could explain a complex problem without issue, but if a student was struggling in class due to personal problems, she was rather clueless.

Ms. Ann suffered from extreme shyness. Through a lot of effort she worked up the nerve to lecture to a class, but one on one interactions with students were tough for her. The principal was adamant that she needed to seek outside help for her shyness and without it, she wouldn't be able to reach her full teaching potential. Despite her nervousness about therapy, Ms. Ann agreed and started working with one. Her shyness was diagnosed as being very severe and a rather extreme solution was tested on her. Through a variety of techniques, a trigger word was programmed into her, so to speak. When this word was spoken or read by her, it would cause her to become more relaxed socially. Thus, when she was in a situation where shyness was holding her back, she could use this word to help remove it as an obstacle. The effect would only last between 3 to 10 minutes. The hope was that over time she wouldn't even need the trigger word anymore.

Over the past week she has gotten a little use to using the word. Starting off in private settings and then in public areas like a grocery store she has been able to use her trigger word to be more comfortable around people. A few times she was even surprised by how friendly she got with strangers. Unprompted, she asks people about their day and compliment their outfits. All things she never dreamed she could do before. She still wanted to get used to it for a few more weeks before even thinking about using it around students or in class, but she was seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

Ms. Ann also hoped this might help her personal life. She lived a lonely life. She had no real friends and never had any type of romantic relationship with anyone. No flings, not even flirting. Her extreme shyness currently prevented all of this.

The last of her students walked through the door just as the bell rank. They took their seats and Ms. Ann began the lecture.

"Good afternoon class. We will be reviewing material today in preparation for your advanced placement test at the end of this week. Remember, if you do well on this test it can count for college credit. It can also reflect very well on the school."

She began drawing a simple diagram of a block sitting on a triangle.

"In absence of friction, a block sitting on a slanted surface like this will slide downwards. What force is directly causing this? Ben?"

Ben was one of her less motivated students. His identity was wrapped up in playing football which was now over. As such he struggled a bit in class.

"Gravity or something," Ben said not looking at the diagram drawn on the board.

"Indirectly, yes. But gravity is downwards while the block is moving both down and to the left. How about you Jimmy?"

Jimmy was a much better student but did not seem to have much in the way of social skills. Obviously Ms. Ann sympathized with him.

"The normal force due to gravity," he stated.

"That is correct."

Sitting next to him were Trent and Joseph. Students who performed well enough but allowed themselves to distract the class with often pointless comments. Trent spoke up first as he usually does.

"Why is it a normal force? What's so normal about it?"

His companion Joseph then finished the comment. "Can you have an abnormal force? Like if the block is special or something?"

Ms. Ann employed her usual tactic of ignoring them and tried to continue the lecture.

"Ms. Ann, can you please force them to shut up. Everyday they say these stupid comments," said Valarie.

Valarie was another stellar student, but spoke her mind often. She was less than kind to most in the class who she felt were beneath her.

"Everyone, please keep the comments to yourself, focus on the lecture," Ms. Ann said trying to keep to the technical material which is what she was most comfortable with.

She continued on with the lecture for a few minutes without interruption. "The gravitational force between two objects is directly related to the mass of the two objects and inversely related to the distance between them, squared. Who can tell me what this G symbol stands for? Ben?"

"Gravity or something," Ben replied.

Ms. Ann walked over and stood in front of his desk. Ben got nervous he was about to be chewed out by the normally quiet teacher.

"You are really cute when you get nervous Ben. Don't worry. I won't bite." She made a biting motion with her mouth and smiled at the confused student.

Jimmy spoke up with the correct answer. "G is the gravitational constant."

Ms. Ann turned her attention to him. "That's right Jimmy. How is it you don't have a girlfriend? If I were at student at this school I'd be all over that tight frame of yours. Heck, if these other girls don't make a move soon I might just steal you."

"Ms Ann!" Valarie spoke up. "Can you please stop teasing everyone and continue the lecture!"

Ms. Ann walked past Valarie running a finger through her hair. "Who says I'm just teasing?"

She walked back to the chalk board and faced the class again and coughed.

"Oh, I'm sorry class. I was...distracted for a second there. Valarie is right, let's continue the lecture."

A few students made some remarks to each other but eventually settled down. Ms. Ann kept from thinking about what just happen and wrote out the next example on the board.

"Gravitational energy describes the potential energy an object has which can be released due to the force of gravity. The equation to describe it is U = mgh. A number of these symbols we just identified, but who can tell me what h is in this equation? Anyone?"

The class looked at her in silence. Ms. Ann felt the stuffiness in the room, both physically and socially. She needed to change things up.

"Okay, let's cool things down a bit. And maybe warm them up at the same time."

Ms. Ann took off her sweater she was wearing over the button up white shirt. She also unbuttoned the top three buttons on the shirt.

"There, I think we can all agree we needed to loosen things up a bit. Right?"

Trent responded, "Sounds good to me!"

Ms. Ann pointed at him. "Thank you Trent! Oh, I almost forgot." To complete her look she hiked up her skirt a few inches above the knee. "There, that makes me feel a lot better. You girls know how it is right?"

Theresa, who was Ben's girlfriend, smiled at her techer. "Exactly Ms. Ann! Oh my gosh, you have such great legs! I have great legs too but the other teachers are always on my case about showing them off."

Valarie spoke up again as she always does. "Ms. Ann, this topic is not going to be covered on the test. If you are done stripping for the class, can you please explain the equation for gravitational energy?"

The class booed her and Joseph even hit her with a wadded up ball of paper. Ms. Ann quickly pulled her skirt back down to is original length.

"Class please, Valarie is correct and I will happily explain the equation. I apologize for my outfit. I was getting hot but now realize it was inappropriate of me which was not intention. In this equation, h stands for height." Ms. Ann continued her lecture while she fully buttoned her shirt and put her sweater back on.

While she gave some example problems on the topic, she was still trying to deny what had happen but in the back of her mind she knew her trigger word had come up twice now in class and was the cause of her shift in her behavior. Some of the comments she made to students horrified her. She wouldn't say something like to someone her age on a date (if she every had one), let alone her students. Not only that, what she did to her outfit was equally embarrassing. The student did not need to see more of her legs or her neck line. But she did it without hesitation. She told herself it was just a fluke, the therapy is new and occasionally some odd behavior could be expected.

Ms. Ann was getting into more details on frictional forces and wrote the general equation for calculating on the board, F = μN. Sally, a normally very quiet girl that keeps to herself raised her hand and asked a question.

"Ms. Ann, sorry. I have a question, sorry. I know that symbol before the N stands for the coefficient of friction, but what is it called? It looks like a 'u' but I know it's not."

"That's a very good question Sally. Such a good question that it's actually heating me up. Putting this sweater back on was a dumb decision on my part." Ms. Ann took her sweater back off and walked over the windows. "Sometimes you need to do things to keep yourself from making bad decisions. In this case, I need to get rid of this sweater for good." She threw it out of the window which cause several of the students to laugh in disbelief.

She looked down at her button up shirt and sighed. "This shirt isn't meant to be buttoned up this high. I need to fix it as well." She unbuttoned the top three buttons as she had earlier, but then tore off the buttons and threw them on the ground.

"Ms. Ann, what does any of this have to do with friction," a very annoyed Valarie said.

Ms. Ann went over and sat on her desk. "Friction is a word with a lot of different meaning. There's the kind that is described in that equation, but there's is also the kind of friction you and I seem to be experiencing Valarie."

Ms. Ann leaned closer to Valarie and put a single finger under her chin and slowly stroked her student's neck with it. The teacher then noticed her own skirt and stood up.

"This skirt is also causing me friction and keeps falling back down. Let's do a quick demonstration of what happen when a stress is applied that exceed the tensile strength of a material."

Ms. Ann reached down and proceeded to tear about 4 inches off the length of the skirt. "You see! It breaks and I become much more comfortable."

"Ms Ann that was awesome," Ben proclaimed with a slow clap. Ms. Ann walked over to his desk and sat on it next.

"Thank you Ben, I'm glad I can make learning physics so enjoyable for you. You are a good kid, you just need to apply that same determination you have on the football field into your studies." She leaned in and kissed his forehead.

Ms. Ann quickly got off the desk and rushed back to the chalk board. She stared at it for a minute, not wanting to face the class yet. Did she really just kiss a student? In what world could that ever be appropriate? This was really bad and could result in her getting hearing with the principal if word got out. And what did she do to her clothes? She couldn't just undo it either. She would have to stay dressed like this including when she left class and walked through the halls. So much of her legs were showing and you could see the top of her bra she thought. She finally turned around, trying in vain to keep the collar of her shirt together.

"I'm sorry about all of that, I'm feeling light headed. I didn't eat lunch. But let's just forget all of that and start where we left off in the lecture."

Without waiting for comments from the class she started back up talking about kinetic energy. A few minutes later Theresa stood up and interrupted Ms. Ann as she was writing the equation for kinetic energy.

"Ms. Ann, I really didn't appreciate you kissing my boyfriend. If you want a boyfriend you shouldn't try and seduce a student. Especially one with a girlfriend already."

The shy teacher dropped her chalk. She really wished everyone would just pretend her previous actions didn't happen. But it was obvious she couldn't ignore it.

"I agree with you Theresa, but you are mistaken. I didn't kiss anyone including your boyfriend. I think you may have misunderstood what you saw. Now, the 'v' in this equation..."

"No," Theresa interrupted again, "I saw you kiss him. He's my boyfriend, not yours!"

"I'm not taking anyone's boyfriend, instead I'm trying to teach about kinetic energy which has this 'v' term in the equation."

Jimmy spoke up next, "Ms. Ann to be accurate, you did kiss Ben. Not on the lips, but you did kiss him."

Another student Rachel spoke up in agreement. "Yep. No denying it. Teacher has got the hots for Ben." Ms. Ann raised her voice to try and get everyone back on topic.

"Who can tell me what the symbol v in this equation means? It's kinetic energy, so that implies the object has what?"

Ms. Ann had yelled a lot louder than she had intended. Maybe louder than she ever had in her life. The class stared at her as she awaited any response from them. Finally, Trent raised his hand and called out a weakly, "Velocity?"

"Oh my gosh, yes! Trent! I'm so proud of you!" Ms. Ann ran over to his desk, sat on his lab, grabbed his face, and kissed him on the lips. It turned from a peck on the lips to an extended kiss. Then she started opening her mouth turning it into a more intimate kiss. Trent went from stunned to enjoying the feeling of his young teacher's lips.

Ms. Ann suddenly pulled away from her student's lips. She gave a horrified look at her student who in return looked confused but very excited. She stood up and rushed back to the front of the class. She had no clue how to explain what just happen.

Theresa spoke up first, "Ms. Ann, I said you shouldn't seduce students in an attempt to find a boyfriend. But thank you for not kissing Ben this time."

"I... I didn't..." Ms Ann was still at a lost for words.

"Ms. Ann, I observed you for sure kissing Trent. No confusion this time," a very unhelpful Jimmy added.

Jimmy made her realize something. That was her first kiss ever. It wasn't after a date with a nice doctor she met in a coffee shop. It wasn't with an old friend she reconnected with and learning she had feelings for. No. It was with a high school student in the middle of one of her classes. It was with Trent, who two months ago she gave him detention for not bringing his textbook to class for the third straight time. Trent, who was currently wearing a shirt that just had the word Fortnite written on it.

Ms. Ann took a big breath before speaking with her eyes closed. "I shouldn't have done that. I was attempting to demonstrate something related to kinetic energy and obviously it didn't work as an effective real life demo. A teacher should never kiss a student and that wasn't my intention. I apologize to you Trent and to the class as a whole. I hope we can get back on topic and move on from this incident."

Trent stood up, still looking a bit dazed, "Ms. Ann, it is okay and I enjoyed that greatly. If you want to try your demo again I am more than happy to help."

"Ms. Ann, I think I might not understand kinetic energy as well as I thought. I don't understand what you kissing Trent was trying to demonstrate," Sally asked.

"We won't be trying the demo as it didn't demonstrate kinetic energy properly. Moving on..." Ms. Ann started the section on kinetic over again as she felt she added a lot of confusion with her... embarrassing display. There was no way the principal wouldn't hear about this Ms. Ann thought. She probably couldn't deny it as too many students would likely back up the truth. She'll deal with it when and if that comes up. She needed to focus on not saying that damn trigger word. She couldn't imagine what would happen next if she did.

She finished up the section on kinetic energy and started up discussing energy transfer. She was going slower as to ensure she didn't trigger herself again.

"If you shoot an object of a known mass into the air with a known amount of kinetic energy, you can calculate how high it will reach. Can anyone tell me the equation?"

Olivia was another smart female student in the class but had the tendency to shame other students due to her own religious beliefs. She answered the question.

"Using the equation for gravitational energy we talked about earlier. E = mgh with E being the initial kinetic energy."

Rachel was looking confused. "How are we supposed to remember all of these constants, variables, symbols and values? Every section has like 20 new ones that need to be memorized. I can't do it!"

"Rachel, I appreciate what you are saying and I sympathize. The key is repetition. The more you use these equations, the sooner all of these variables will be like second nature to you. But in the mean time you are stressed. A key to reducing stress is to change up the environment. We can't exactly leave the classroom but we can change the views in it."

Ms. Ann then pulled her button down shirt open, launching the remaining buttons all over the class room. The shirt was then fully removed and thrown out the window just as she had done with her sweater. She stood in front of the high school students wearing only her white lacy bra as a top.

"Holy shit Ms. Ann, you are now my favorite teacher!" Joseph blurted out staring at her chest.

Ms. Ann walked over to Rachel, lifted her leg up over her lap and straddled her young female student. Her bra was now just below the girl's eye line. She stroked the student's cheek as she spoke to her.

"I'll bet you are a lot less stressed now. Physics can seem a difficult subject, but unlike other classes, you can use it to actually explain things you experience in the world every day. Gravity, motion, forces. You can predict and describe them."

Ms. Ann then start undoing the buttons on the girl's shirt. Rachel's eyes darted between her teacher's eyes and exposed bra.

"God this is really hot Ms. Ann," the apparently sexually open girl said as the last of her buttons became undone.

"Like I said, a change in the environment can help you and your fellow student focus." Ms. Ann then got up and took her place back at the front of the class.

She immediately covered herself up and turned her back to the class. "Oh my gosh. I didn't mean to throw my shirt out the window. Can I please borrow a jacket or extra shirt from someone?" The class was silent. "Nobody has anything I can borrow? I'll take almost anything! I can't teach the class like this!" Again, silence from the class.

"Ms. Ann, was the equation I gave before you shamed yourself before god correct," Olivia asked.

"Yes, it was, but that's not important now."

"Ms. Ann, I am getting very tired of your weird behavior constantly interrupting the lecture. You promised this review ahead of the advanced placement test," Valarie moaned.

With no one offering any covering, Ms. Ann was left with no other choice. She turned back around and gave the class another eye full of her bra.

"Do you really want to teach class dressed like that Ms. Ann?" Ben asked.

"No, I absolutely do not but I accidentally lost my shirt and no one apparently can offer me any alternative coverings."

"Ms. Ann, you were the one who threw your shirt out the window, it was no accident," Jimmy once again unhelpfully pointed out.

"Rachel, please button up your shirt." Ms. Ann wanted to at least have her student look decent.