This Is Not The Write Class For You

(I am a math teacher. My students have just finished a week of exploration, where they didn’t take any notes. Yesterday and today they have been writing down notes to summarize everything they learned in the exploration.)

Students: “Miss, this is so much writing! My hand is starting to hurt!”

Me: “Oh, come on. I’ve made you write, like, six sentences.”

Students: “It’s so much! My hand hurts!”

Me: “You know, if you guys can’t handle writing six sentences in ninth grade, then your English teacher isn’t making you write enough. I think I’ll email Mrs. [English Teacher] and let her know.”

Students: *horrified* “NO, MISS! Don’t email her! We have her class next! You can’t tell her that – she’ll make us write more!”

Me: “Yeah, that’s the point.”

(I emailed the English teacher to let her know what they said, knowing that she is going to understand that I’m (mostly) joking but she will threaten to make them write more because of this. Then I told the students that I had emailed her.)

Student #1: “WHAT?! MISS! I have her class next period! She’s going to make us write a ton and I’M GOING TO BLAME YOU! If she makes us write, it’ll be all your fault!”