A Happy Moment

I've had some rough days recently in my classroom, but if there's one thing I love most, it's having those little reminders about why I love teaching so much. I don't like to play favorites, but I do have one class period that I absolutely love. They are a great bunch of kids compared to my other periods with such discipline issues. I had a new girl come into this class period and she automatically stands out: rude, disobedient, and doesn't do any of the work. Today her true colors came out and she decided to shout and mouth off to me because she did a problem wrong. Of course I am not phased by this adolescent outburst and stuck her in the corner. My wonderful students in this class are immediately shocked by this and whisper to me that they don't want her in this class anymore. It's like a lightbulb went off in their heads that they would never treat me the way this girl just did, and continued to reassure me. They wanted absolutely nothing to do with such a negative person. I know this might not sound like a big deal, but this was my first real insight into my students' minds. They are still very young and immature and adjusting with 8th grade, but today was THEE day where I truly felt they understood how difficult it is to be to be a teacher. Love it.