I had this conversation with my class today:


Student: I'm stupid.
Me: I don't ever want to hear you say that. You are not stupid. And besides, I only teach smart kids.
Student: You think I'm smart?
Me: Of course. Like I said, I only teach smart kids.

The best part was that I then saw other students turn to their classmates and say, "I'm smart!"


There is a pretty famous teaching story that tells about a teacher who, after getting her new class's information, was thrilled to discover that all of her students had high IQs.  After each of their names, was a number, between 120-150.

The year goes on, and the principal is thrilled with the progress the students had made. He has a meeting with the teacher and asked her how she has managed to get the lowest kids to make such progress. She was surprised at his question, since all of her students had such high IQs. She showed him the paper with the names and numbers. He said, "Those aren't their IQs. Those are their locker numbers. "