Three down in less than two weeks

Last week when of my kids moved to a new school. He just happened to be one of the hardest kids that I had in my class. Actually, let's not pretend. He was the most difficult kid in my class. He was loud and rude and disruptive. I was sorry to see him go because this will be his eighth school in less than two years. I believe that many of the disruptions would have settled down as he settled in.

Today I found out that another one of my students has left. One of my girls. She was a talker and could be annoying but in the same way that all kids can be. She would give me these big fake eyes when she was in trouble. I'm sorry to see her go but will not miss the talking or big fake looks of sadness. Her departure leaves us with only five girls in our classroom.

After school today we had a placement meeting for my special education child. It was determined that he would be better serviced at a different school. We do not have the services that he needs. His last school knew that he was not ready for a mainstreamed classroom but there was a problem with placement and he went "unnoticed" in my room for five to six weeks before someone could get around to telling me that he was already in the special education program.

I'll be sorry to see this kid go in many ways. He is a really sweet boy when he wants to be. He has the emotional age of a three year old and reminds me of Middle Child in a huge eight year old body. He works really hard and has learned so much while he has been in my class.

There are some ways that I am glad that he is going. The added paperwork of a discipline plan that must be completed every 15 minutes during the day. The frustration of a child that is angry at me and hides in another room. A child that will express his frustration by making large "booping" sounds when he is mad. He seemed to pick one thing that drives me crazy very fast.

My classroom will be a lot easier to teach with these three children outside of my responsibility. I will have far fewer behavioral problems. I will have far less noise in the classroom. But we will miss out on the unique things that they brought with them. We will miss out on the challenges that they brought but we will also miss out on all of the learning opportunities that had nothing to do with academics and everything to do with life.