Success!!!! (at least it WAS!)

I have had more success stories than failure stories, in general...

One recent success story:
    There was a girl in my 3rd period class (seventh grade) that was trouble. She had moved here from Florida the second week of school and had an ATTITUDE. She is white, which I think is where a lot of the peer clashes come from, but she was always trying to start messes with other students and got suspended for fighting fairly early on in the year. She also had a TERRIBLE attitude in my class. She would sit and pout or glare or write on my desks and never really did any work.
    This quarter, something changed. I had talked to her a little bit before about trying to pick up her grade (she failed the first 9 weeks miserably), but I didn't think anything would change her. Suddenly, she started coming to class on time and getting to work right away. She also began to participate in class, handed in every homework assignment and scored in the high 80s on the first test she took this quarter. I was so proud of her! (I was also quite surprised!) I wrote a note home for her to take to her parents about how outstanding she had been doing in my class because I'm pretty sure they RARELY hear anything positive about her. When I handed her the note to bring home, she looked a little nervous. I told her to take it to her parents and that she may read it if she wanted to. At the end of class, she came up to me to hand something in and was smiling SO BIG. I asked if she had read the note and she nodded and kept smiling. I told her I was so impressed with how she's been doing and she thanked me and left.
    Then it came time to pick student of the month. I thought she would make a great candidate. After all, she was one of few students that had turned in every homework assignment we've had, AND she had a great attitude in class every day! So I picked her. The day I meant to announce it to the class, I didn't quite get around to it and had to pull her aside to give it to her later. Again, she looked so surprised and HAPPY about it! I just loved seeing her expression!! I also couldn't wait to see how her progress kept up this 9 weeks with her new attitude and hoped these rewards would keep her attitude up.
    It really seemed like it would..........

..........and now she's suspended for fighting. I still count this as a success story. The fight didn't occur in my room or anything, and I guess I can't expect her to have COMPLETELY changed...I'm just hoping she comes back and can catch up quickly and doesn't get frustrated! I laughed today because my "starting five" student (student of the month) for my 3rd period class was supposed to help me out, and she was suspended. HAHAHA. GREAT example!
  

Other smaller, but very important successes that I have done recently....
I learned to:
        TAKE A DAY OFF (It just feels sooo good!)
and
        DELEGATE.  There are plenty of people (students, parents, etc) that are more than willing to help you with small tasks and it helps SO MUCH. I still need to do this more, but in giving my students more responsibility, we both win! They love it and learn at the same time, and I don't have as much on my plate to do every day!

:)