I’m starting my writing early for a change! 🙂

I love teaching middle school students.

I love their quirky, awkward style.

I love the fact they think of themselves as ridiculously cool, only to find themselves looking with disdain at the SAME THINGS as high school students.

I love the fact they look at us with disdain, only find out (surprise, surprise) that high school is harder. Then it’s “oh we want to come back.” Whatever. You had your shot here! 🙂

I love their language, a combination of text, tweet, Snap, and English all mushed together. It’s always a challenge to get them to write in a “proper” way.

I love their stories, which was the inspiration for this blog. Dead silent, we try to read or blog the first 10 minutes of class. This boy, distractible as the day is long, comes over: “Mr. J, wanna hear something funny?”

Now, funny to me isn’t the same as funny to a middle schooler who’s not always appropriate anyway! I make sure he won’t get in trouble, and I let him continue.

“My dad’s really bald, and we got him this oil that he uses on his head. One day, I asked him, ‘Hey Dad, can you bend over, I’ve got something caught in my teeth and need to see what is it?!’ ”

#ohmygoodness

Like I said, it’s dead silent and he just had to tell me this right now.

And that’s why I love teaching middle school, because there’s never a dull moment.