"They're Just Trying to Impress You"

The title is what one of my sixth graders said about the fourth/fifth grade class this week. I teach 4th-6th Bible (35 kids...same time...yikes!). Yesterday I gave them an essay assignment. We just got done with the first series of Moses, from his birth to the crossing of the Red Sea. The students had two days to write me an biographical essay on the life of Moses that we had studied so far. I knew a lot of my kids, even though I told them they had to write me three paragraphs, would think they were trying too hard to give me a whole page. The fourth/fifth grade class, however, by the end of the first day, had me pages, and they only had to write two paragraphs! One fifth grade girl handed in three pages! I told my class that the other class was showing them up, and that's when the above statement was said and agreed upon by the rest of my class. I looked at them and told them it's nice to have people try to impress you every once in a while! Then the same student said, "Well, they're scared of you, too!" Technically, this is true. I think most of the elementary school is scared of me. *sigh* I wish my sixth graders still were. But if feels nice to have students who actually still want to impress you. The question of whether or not I'm impressed still remains to be determined. They can write me pages, but it doesn't mean it makes sense on paper. It kind of makes me feel good, though, just knowing the kids want to work hard for my approval. Just their effort wins that. Guess I'm doing something right. Otherwise, they wouldn't care, right?