Another wrote: "When I see you in the future and you are that super superstar, I'll say, hey, that was my ninth-grade global teacher, the best teacher I ever had.

Alphonse Bonnafé, Brassens's ninth-grade teacher, strongly encouraged his apparent gift for poetry and creativity.

"I was a Tsongas person," said Susan Nelson, a ninth-grade teacher who is a Democratic precinct chairwoman from Seattle.

He stunned his ninth-grade teacher, Angie Bateman, by writing an essay arguing that the Holocaust never happened.

They come off sounding like ninth-grade teachers reading dry copy out of a U.S. history textbook; I'm not quite sure Joe Buck has ever even met half of these guys.

His gaze still on the scrolling text, he murmured, "You sound like my ninth-grade teacher."

In each of the past five years, Mali has averaged 667 newly built first- through sixth-grade classrooms and 1,962 freshly hired first- through ninth-grade teachers.

Mr. Carter's ninth-grade English teacher collected $692 and handed it to Mr. Carter at the ceremony so he and his family could start their new life.

Others are turning to their ninth-grade teachers and counselors for guidance.

A ninth-grade teacher said, "I had three students this week who came in pregnant."