We remember moments, not days

"We remember moments, not days" and on this day of having my residential (and honorary residential) students over for dinner and games there are many a moment that I'll not soon forget:

1) "Yagmur yapmak" and how this works at Turkish weddings and strip clubs (they're teenagers, what can I do?)
2) Playing Apples to Apples and explaining what a "plumber's crack/smile" is (the winner for the 'hard and fast' card)
3) Opening the door to smiling faces and a huge, beautiful bouquet of flowers
4) Having Simsek serve everyone despite his classroom claims of what a woman's role is (revenge!)
5) Still trying to figure out how to define "mucous membrane" by anything more than "something science-y"
6) Learning new Turkish idioms involving rips, underwear, firlamak-ing, and "has the shit" as Irem's deadpan translation goes...

One of things I think teachers often forget is that our students are human beings outside of our classrooms - but what I wish we'd remember more often is that a kid will sooner forget the grade on a 9th grade English exam and sooner remember sharing a laugh, smile, pep talk, or something personal with a teacher. It's the shared experience of being human that teaches us all something more than how to add fractions or what a preposition is. When we think about how we spend our time as teachers, I want to the ratio to be way more on moments that count than grading papers... Thanks to my kids for reminding me of this tonight!

Photo and Street Cred: Mr. Torres (look carefully for the author's signature)