Teacher Appreciation

You may not have realized, but this week was Teacher Appreciation Week.  In honor of this, the greatest of all celebrations that I don't get out of school for, my students (and several others) wrote notes to their favorite teachers.  Here is a sampling of notes I received, in honor of those precious babies who thought I would give them extra credit for writing their note to me.  I shall categorize them for you.

1. Some were short and to the point:
"you're special to me."
"you are awesome."
"you are nice."

2. Some were very matter-of-fact:
"you work hard in teaching"
"you are always smiling :)"
"you're so fun and understanding, and intelligent."
"you teach us what we need to know and you are very nice and respectable lady."

3. One was a little odd:
"You're Awesome...Meow" -this one included a hand-drawn cat licking it's paw.

4. Some had cute and endearing grammatical errors:
"Youre the awesomestest"
"The 2 years I've taken your class had have been fun!  You always have a positive attitude & you always know how to make any lesson fun :)" -she corrected her own mistake!
"Merci!  Tu a une prof magnifique.  Not only do you teach us french But you allow us to have fun with it <3."-for my non-francophone friends, she wrote "you has a magnificent teacher" and I'm pretty sure she meant "you are a magnificent teacher"...  maybe not?

5. And then there were my favorites:
"Cause you are a wonderful teacher and you are patient and very understanding and you take the time to make sure every student learns something everyday."
"You are my cousin and you have a great way in teaching.  I love you Mrs. Wehr"-this particular student calls me "Cousin Wehr" on a regular basis because she knows that we were meant to be family... it's particularly funny that she calls me this because she's black, and I'm the pastiest white kid you've ever met.
"You were my teacher for two years and if I didn't think I'd fail French 3 honors I'd take it just because you teach it."
"I love you so much and you love me the way I am and I know you wouldn't trade me for nothing! :)"

And I really wouldn't trade my kids for "nothing"!

Cute Kid Story #1

Being a teacher is probably the hardest thing I've ever done.  It's exhausting.  When I get up every morning I have to become a mother, a counselor, a nurse, a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, and a strict disciplinarian to 140 high school babies.  Occasionally I feel like ripping my hair out.  Quite often I feel incompetent.  But then my kids provide me with little nuggets I can chew on for a while that make me fall in love with them all over again.
Here begins my cute kid story #1.
So my students were working on a worksheet about reflexive verbs.  (If you don't know what these are, it's alright.  Understanding French grammar is not imperative to the story).  They were talking quietly and working together while I was walking around helping them with any questions, when, out of the blue, Little Billy (names have been changed to protect the sometimes-innocent) says, "Nous nous maquille.  C'est la vie."  Translation: "We puts on makeup.  That's life."
There are lot's of things wrong with this statement.  First, it's not grammatically correct.  Next, Little Billy is a thug.  He's got tattoos, sags his pants, and is an all forms of the word a "tough guy".  I wish I could say that I'm a brilliant French teacher and I had taught the kids to make funny jokes in French, but unfortunately I'm not that teacher.  This kid, after further examination, had no idea what he was saying.  He saw some words on his paper that sounded cool when he said them all together and then he blurted them out.
But maybe Little Billy had a point.  I know I "puts on makeup" every day.  Why?  I'm not really sure.  I mean, I could make up a bunch of reasons like, I need to look professional at my job, I like the colors of the eye shadow I have, a lot of my makeup was given to me and it would be rude not to use it, you get the point.  But when it really comes down to it, for me putting on makeup (and many other things I do) are just things that I do because, well, "that's life" and that's what we do.
And even though Little Billy does not "se maquille" every day, he get's it.
C'est la vie.