There is one week left of class, and today I told my 8th graders I was probably telling them the last story of the year. A few students made sad faces but one student, let’s call her Elizabeth, exclaimed “YEAH!” with a big smile. I looked at her in semi shock, and she said she did not like the stories. Ouch! It stings. It won’t be the first or the last time a student gives me feed-back out loud, and I have heard a lot worse during my career as a teacher but still, ouch.

Now, what to do with this feed-back? Since it was not disrespectful in any way, but just an honest feed-back, I told her honesty was important and that she’d better listen carefully since it was the last story of the year! Then, I proceeded to telling my story. “Once upon a time there was a queen…” I drew a queen with a sad face and a student blurted in French “Elle s’appelle Elizabeth” (her name is Elizabeth), and I just went with it. We ended up having a good old time with this story 🙂 And Elizabeth played along because she is such a great kiddo.

It is so hard not to take feed-back personally but a little sense of humor goes a long way. I hope you enjoy our last story of the year: