Es historia aburrido(a?)?

I pride myself on recently passing a test. I am now a mature, experienced educator, able to handle with aplomb (what does that word mean anyway? I'm too lazy to look it up right now) anything that comes my way. Yup, I have moved beyond the ranks of those teachers who get the deer in the headlights, don't-know-what-to-do look, whenever a crisis presents itself. Now I react with deadly professionalism to anything that comes my way.

I wish. But recently I had an experience that shows me how I have developed as a teacher. This is what happened...

I found a student had left her textbook in my classroom. It happens, and no big deal, right? Except if they have homework to do from the book. I can't remember if that was the case this time. Anyway, I take a look at the brown paper bag cover over the text, to see it labeled as U.S. History. And in pen next to the course is scrawled "es my aburrido." I also discover this has been scrawled in the handwriting of a student who I like a lot. (She has a cool biblical name for one thing, so how can I not like her? But that's kind of off topic). Actually, I like most of my students a lot, so maybe I'm just droning on with irrelevant facts. Anyway, for those of you who don't know Spanish, "es muy aburrido" means "is very boring." Ouch!

"So that's how you feel about it, you loser!" I yelled to the empty classroom upon discovering her true feelings on the class. I then called her parents and vented to them about what a terribly disrespectful, crummy child they had raised, and told them she would fail the class. They promised to promptly spank her, and make her study history for the next three hours.

Actually, forget that last paragraph. It's fiction. So I was tempted to feel bad about this, and did a little I think. But I didn't let that get me down for long. The next day she came in and asked me if she had left her book in class. Yes, here it is. "Sabes que yo hablo espanol?" I asked her (Do you know that I speak Spanish? I don't think I used correct conjugations of some of my verbs, the form you're supposed to use in emotion/uncertainty situations, but Spanish speakers please forgive me, as I can't remember some of the correct tenses anymore.) "Estoy muy triste que piensas esta sobre mi clase. Comprendes?" (I'm very sad that you feel this way about my class. Do you understand?") She said she did. And boy was she embarrassed!

Later I tucked in a little reference to history and sarcastically/mockingly referred to it as boring, just for the fun of it. I think she got the point. I'm going to make fun of any attitude that puts down history! In using sarcasm I probably violated a cardinal rule of modern education methods. But I think it was acceptable under the circumstances

So there you have it. Lessons learned over the years? Don't take things personally, and embarrass students as much as possible. Okay, maybe not the last one. But at least make light of students boredom. If you feel badly about complaints or take them personally, your life as a teacher will be constantly depressed. But not mine. I love it. I still chuckle to myself as I think about the little secret she let me in on, probably because she didn't know I know a little espanol.

Incidentally, I think she may have used the incorrect form of the adjective. But I can't even remember what is correct myself, so don't know for sure. Is "historia" masculine or feminine?