Students' voices...

Low points of the week:
The students in one of my classes have taken to telling me every day that I'm ugly. Aside from just straight up saying, "Ms. K's UGLY, yo!" they've also started calling me 'ogre,' 'the hulk,' and 'Fiona' (from Shrek). That's fine. I know not to take anything 7th graders say too seriously, and for those of you that don't know me, I'm a smallish to average person, so the ogre comments don't sting much. What DID hurt a little was when they practically threw a party when I told them I would no longer be their social studies teacher, and they would only have me for English. First, they cheered, then they asked, "Is there any way we can get a different English teacher too?" NO! Now let me just go ahead a revise this homework list, you little....

High point of the week:
Two students in my other English class were talking before class started. "Ms. K is my best teacher. There isn't even a close second." (They saw me walking by.) "Hey Ms. K, students only complain about you sometimes 'cuz you give a lot of work. But that's good. We need it." (This discussion was between one of my average performing students and one of my worst performing students. Occassional comments like these have kept me from quitting during this pretty rough first year.)