Sarah P. and I are doing a lesson together...her girls wrote personal ads, and now my boys are reading them and writing letters in response. So far the boys have been really, really excited to get letters from the girls, most of whom identify themselves as either "cute" or "sexy." That's of course except for the boys who already have girlfriends, who can't help being all smug and tend to write things like, "Hm, you wanna date me? It's too bad, I already have a very, very beautiful girlfriend." Thanks, guys, I'm sure she'll be so happy to read that. One of those students went so far as to give the girl his number, with a little x replacing the second to last digit. My students are nothing if not super-classy. I hope she texts all 10 possible numbers with some biting, "thanks for nothing"-style message. Anyway, most of the letters were very effusive, except for one boy who clearly thought that whoever had written the letter he got hadn't put in enough effort on her personal ad. "I think you do not earnestly," he wrote, using a light green pen on light green paper, "so I prepare this pen. You can read it, but your eyes will swim." That's pretty crafty...these kids play hardball.