"Happy teachers make..."
I was reading Psalm 119:71, 75 from the always-perfect Streams in the Desert... The gist was "I'm glad I was afflicted, because the Lord was able to show me His faithfulness." God is so good to remind me of how badly I need Him, in my classroom, in my home, in my grad classes, every hour. Every hour in my classroom, my students get rowdy. It is during those times I remind them of how I've trained them to say two things. Whenever they get loud, I give them my quiet signal, wait for them to settle down and ask, "What is the only thing I should be hearing right now?" To which they respond in unison: "The scribbling of our pencils!" The sounds of scribbling commence for about 3 minutes, then, as the hum of their voices continues, I again give them the quiet signal and wait for them to quiet down. I then say to them, "Students, I am not happy, and we all know that a happy teacher makes..." and they all say, "HAPPY STUDENTS!" Then