Teacher-Space, a new and innovative online community for teachers, appears revamped and redesigned for June 2009. Husband and wife team, Wes and Darlene Kriesel, are co-owners and co-founders of Teacher-Space.com, which originally launched in summer of 2008.

Good mooooooooorning, Teacher-Space! (insert voice of Adrian Kronauer here)

We all know that teachers don't have favorites.  I mean, we're not supposed to have favorites.  But no matter how hard we try, all of us in the classroom have our hearts captured from time to time by student.  Maybe it happens because they work extra hard on an assignment, coming in for extra help.  Maybe they display a sharply witty sense of humor.  Or maybe it's just that we see some nobility and sacrifice in their character when they help other students with their work.  Maybe we see them withhold from making hurtful comments when others are making hurtful comments.  Or perhaps we see how dedicated they are to their families.  No matter how fair or impartial we are supposed to be, we spend so much time with our students that eventually we see something powerfully affective that makes us sympathetic toward certain students.  And that's okay to have our heartstrings tugged on in sympathy, compassion, and admiration.  We just need to follow the straight and narrow path and make sure our students don't FEEL that we are playing favorites, which is quite another thing from having favorites.