Lazy With A Chance Of Meatballs

(I’m studying to become a school teacher and at the time I’m in my first practical with three guys. The practical is structured so that it’s a group effort and either we all pass or all fail. The three guys are complete slackers and often won’t even show up for the few classes we have to teach and they never do any prep work. Needless to say, nearing the end of it I’m overly stressed because I have to plan for them to be there during the lessons but also assume I’m going to be alone in teaching. We have three grades we are teaching English in, 3rd, 4th, and 7th. One day, when the guys had not only ditched class, but ‘asked’ me to cover them, I was feeling really down when one of our 7th graders comes up to me.)

Student: “You okay, [My Name]?”

Me: *I force a smile because I don’t want the kids thinking that it’s their problem, especially when it isn’t* “Yeah, just a little tired. It’s been a long week, huh?”

Student: “Yeah, I know what you mean. Hey, can I tell you something?”

Me: “Sure.”

Student: “Did you know that out of the four of you guys, we like you and [One of the Guys] the best?”

(I am really wondering how they could like the guy because he was the worst out of them all at showing up on time, and always gave the students these long and confusing projects that he never explained what they were to do with. Most of the time, if they ask him to explain it, he will repeat what he said in a louder voice, word for word, where I’d have to go in and explain it in easier and simpler words with examples so that they could understand it.)

Me: “Really? Why’s that?”

Student: “Yeah. We like you because you always do your best to explain stuff so that we can understand it.”

Me: “And [Guy]?”

Student: “Because he looks like the main character from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.”

(Needless to say, this made that week a lot better.)