I tried, I changed, but still am getting divorced!

[newmama]

THanks for the comments, ladies!

TODAY WAS MUCH MUCH BETTER! Even my disruptive guy only stepped on a kid's hands, ran up to the projector once, and he shouted out at the carpet or grabbed the pointer. He actually stayed at his desk most of the time(I separated him and told him he could earn his way back to a group; I gave him a point sheet and praise, and I tried to give him easier expectations for work like "write your name. then count the squares. How many? that's right! now color the squares." For his writing assignment, he drew Woody from Toy Story 3 (actually a very good drawing!) and said "me saw movie! Woody! mommy and me!"...very low, poor guy.)

I am on it with the support- I have requested a teacher support meeting, notified the counselor, student supervisor, and ESL teacher (he has ESL AND and IEP for communication (separate issue)) and signed up to get a "foster grandparent" in the classroom! sigh!

My little girl with the paranoid parents was actually quite a joy and pleasure to help today. She IS very cute! She followed directions without arguing or saying "no thanks- i'd rather color." (lol! they are funny, aren't they?)and she did her work!

let's see- tomorrow i have a parent who wants to meet me to see if his daughter can skip grades. She had 1st grade in India. She turns 7 in March. Well, I asked my principal and she said it is up to me. what??? weird protocol! I am to see if she has met first grade objectives and then reflect on her maturity and make a decision. I think we meet with principal at that point.

And another mom came up to me after school to meet with me in person on Thursday. Wow, it really has been a few years since I had so many involved parents this early in the year! On the other hand, that class had very sweet kids and this class is sweet. Hmmm....correlation between involved parents and caring kids?

G- I have had very tough small groups as well as a SPED teacher...so don't discount your experience! I just blocked out that memory until you mentioned it, lol! Sometimes the kids seem more relaxed in a small group which isn't always a good thing. And I remember when I had to have 1:2 in the resource room for one kid, even though we didn't have the "woman" power.

GM- thanks for the perspective on being the single woman among my coworkers and friends! And how interesting- I can relate to the behavior issues from your patients even though I teach 6 year olds!

Awest- guess it is kind of interesting that stbxh hasn't brought up divorce. I don't know what to think about that.

CW- yep, the yardwork has to mean something!

Mrs A- the yardwork isn't stressing me out- it is just funny/frustrating that stbxh has made so many empty promises since spring and now it is fall...