One of my students came in today with a bag of candy to pass out during homeroom. He got through the whole class and there was tons left so I said jokingly, “What, don’t you want to give some to your favorite teacher?”
The student replied, “She already got some.”
He was clueless.
Fortunantly, a handful of my own homeroom kids wern’t so clueless. I thought the comment was hillarious but 2 of my kids seemed deeply concerned that it hurt my feelings. They said with all honesty, “You’re my favorite!” You just can’t help but smile.
I think one of the most important things for a teacher to remember is that you’re not there to be friends with your students. While I wouldn’t want to be hated, it doesn’t really bother me if they like me or not. Sometimes though, it’s really nice to hear that anyway.