Can't see it too well in the sidebar, so...

I actually DID think, "wow, he's quietly taking notes and hanging on my every word..." So, the end of the class comes around, he rips this page out of his notebook and proudly (if a bit sheepishly) presents it to me. And I can't help but think, "Damn, the kid can draw detail. And he isn't above subtle brown-nosing, since he drew me thinner than I actually am..."

And this considering I'm the kind of teacher who believes that scaring the shit out of students from time to time is a damn good way of showing them what they are really capable of, if one does it with a clear purpose.

All this assumes, of course, that he meant it as a compliment, which is the story I'm sticking with, because in fact even if he didn't mean it that way, it's still one anyway. So there.