Monday, November 2, 2015

Seeing Red

There's no place quite like middle school, eh? I've mentioned before I love what I do, and I love that I teach sixth graders. I'd just like to give you an example of why middle school students are just too funny.

There are two seventh grade boys, who are former students of mine, that are like sons to me. They come downstairs to visit me, now and then, between classes to say hello and to tell my sixth graders they better be good to me. The boys also come down to let me know how they're doing in certain subjects or to talk about their sports and invite me to games, which I enjoy attending when I can.

One of their favorite things to do, when they visit in the hallway with me, is what I like to call, "You didn't do that with us!" Now, the way this goes is the boys will look in my classroom to see what my students are doing this year. If they see anything different, that looks like the students are doing something they didn't get to do in class last year, they turn to me and say, (yes, you guessed it) "You didn't do that with us!" It's absolutely hilarious! When I try to explain I don't do everything the same every year, they just give me sad faces and tell me I should have done that with their class. At this point, I usually remind them of something fun we did last year, and it makes them smile. They are both gracious gentlemen, so they usually end our conversation by telling me I should do that something for this year's class, too, because it was fun.

I thought I'd heard it all from their appraisals of my lessons this year. I didn't think they could surprise me with anything they observed or said, but...

I was wrong.

Today, the two boys came down to see me during their passing periods. They both stopped dead in their tracks when they saw me. "Whaaaat have you done?!" one said, his mouth hanging open. I looked very innocent because, in truth, I wasn't sure what he was talking about or what they were staring at.

They both walked up to me and one reached out to touch my hair. "Your hair! What did you do to your hair? I mean,...I like it! I do like it!" It was then that I realized they had not seen me since I dyed my hair a dark red last week, a big change from my usual blonde.

Both the boys recovered after a few moments, and then one of the boys looked at the other and grinned before turning to me and saying, "Honestly, it looks great, but...but...you didn't do that with us last year!"
 
Ah, my middle schoolers... :)

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