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So I absolutely love my eighth grade students. That isn't to say I don't love my sixth and seventh grade students too -- I do -- but the eighth graders are a very special class. There are currently seven students, five girls and two boys. We just started a thrills and chills unit, featuring all these awesome stories you may remember from being that age. Stories like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, The Monkey's Paw, The Open Window, The Necklace. Stories that are just perfect for this time of year when the weather gets chilly and gray.

My eighth graders are also obsessed with the 90s, which I find pretty hilarious being a child of the 90s myself. Just today a couple of my girls were talking about how they'd love to have a choker necklace! Haha. And shoulder pads! :) They also like to talk about shows like CatDog, Aaahh!!! Real  Monsters, and Rugrats. Been there, done that, kids!

I had the kids write their names on the bottom of the sign
but blurred them here to protect the innocent. :) 

If you know me you know that I like to celebrate little things, making occasions out of the day-to-day as best I can. With that in mind, and also knowing my students love the 90s, I decided a simple reading of a story just wouldn't do. No. Not at all. So I decided that instead of reading our stories every fifth period, fifth period would become the official meeting of The Midnight Society, our new literary group. If you know the 90s like me, then you know exactly where I got this name! In true Midnight Society fashion we can't just read stories in our desks with the harsh classroom lights on. Absolutely not! Instead, we moved our desks into a circle, turned off the lights, and read by (electric) candlelight.

Today was the first official meeting of The Midnight Society, our inaugural reading being Sorry, Right Number by Stephen King. Guys, let me tell you what. It. was. a. blast. And to tell you the truth, I didn't just do it for them. I did it for me too because I had SO much fun. I'm hoping the excitement won't wear off, but we'll see. I can tell you this for sure -- we were in the middle of the story today when class was about to be over. My kids were like "Miss Lafferre, can we stay? We want to know what happens. Can we just stay here?" You want to know what their next period was that they wanted to skip in order to read?

LUNCH.

On most days I feel like a teacher failure, but for a few minutes today I felt like a real teacher. One that has a sliver of hope of inspiring her students to love reading, to love learning, and to have wonderful memories of eighth grade. There but for the grace of God go I.