Dispatch from Student Teaching

Veteran Teacher: “How’s it going so far?”

Me: “Great. These kids are just so good. I don’t know if it’s just that they aren’t comfortable around me yet, but everything I tell them to do, they do it.”

VT (looking at me quizzically): “I’ll keep my mouth shut about that one” …*reconsiders*… “that will change.”

Two hours later

Me (in my invariably calm tone): I need you to keep your voice down.

Study Hall Student: I don't know why you’re being a fascist.

I suspect this young man and I will be exploring this issue again. Like, tomorrow. Still, that's not my favorite quote of the day. That honor goes to one my ninth-graders explaining to his classmates why sometimes violence is the only answer to a problem. He said, "So, if two countries are having a border dispute and one of them charges into the other one’s territory, is that other country just going to sit there and take the punches in the face?". I really got too much of a kick out of that.