My “comic book” teacher

In our class, there’s a “mood sticker” that represents someone very particular – and that person is my art teacher, Mr. Ma. You don’t even need to look at anything else; just his “signature features” are enough to make him stand out: a plump belly, a white outfit, and black-rimmed glasses with perfectly clean lenses. He wears those glasses everywhere he goes. He wipes them during class and also after class, as if they were precious treasures.

Mr. Ma is a true fan of smartphones. Every art class, whether we’re doing crafts or drawing, after explaining the necessary precautions, he would take a chair next to the podium, sit down, and start looking at his phone, completely forgetting that he’s teaching a group of kids. He laughs so hard that his eyes almost shut into slits. Only when he remembers he’s still there to teach us does he look up at us for a moment, then immediately turn back to his phone, and his laughter is so loud that it seems to be heard outside the classroom. Of course, if he just keeps looking at his phone and ignores us all the time, that wouldn’t be Mr. Ma’s style at all.
I remember one time in the second semester of fourth grade; my deskmate was chatting with a classmate. Fearing they would get caught, he would occasionally glance towards Mr. Ma, and once he saw that Mr. Ma wasn’t looking, they would really let loose and have a great conversation. Just as they were having fun, Mr. Ma suddenly turned his head over, and my deskmate didn’t realize he was being watched. Suddenly, Mr. Ma said, “Hey, class representative, what are you doing?” Indeed, my deskmate was one of the class representatives. Hearing Mr. Ma’s voice, he immediately stopped talking and looked up at him. Mr. Ma then asked both of them to stand up and ordered them to stand at the back of the classroom. The reason was twofold: first, they were chatting; second, they weren’t drawing, so as a punishment, they had to stand as a way for them to realize their mistake. They had to stand there until the end of class, and only after Mr. Ma nodded could they sit down.
Although Mr. Ma can be a bit impatient, his paintings and handwriting are exceptionally beautiful. For example, during some art classes, he drew a Chinese ink painting right in front of us. The back of his classroom was filled with his works, and both his writing and paintings were absolutely stunning. I heard from Teacher Zhang that he’s also a member of the city’s art association. That’s really impressive!
This is my Mr. Ma – a bit of a tyrant when it comes to discipline, but his paintings and handwriting are so beautiful that they make the art class much less boring for me.