Somewhat better than crocodile wrestling

There are people out there who wonder why I would ever want to teach middle school. People who think that teaching middle school must be on par with crocodile wrestling-- dangerous, messy, and not terribly productive. If that's you, I would like to take this opportunity to prove you absolutely wrong.

Last school year, in the context of a lesson, I shared something about my personal life that has been causing me stress. In talking about it out loud, I was surprised (and slightly horrified, I'll admit) to find myself tearing up. I wrapped the conversation up quickly, and moved on to the next piece of the lesson.

The next day, one of my students stopped me as I was transitioning between activities.

"Miz Middling, we know that you're going through a difficult time right now, and we just wanted to let you know that we are thinking about you and hope that everything works out."

And then they gave me chocolate. And a card that the whole class signed.