Be Patient, He Hears Us

The following is an email I received from T's teacher today. Tears of joy flowed as I read. Progress, although slow, is happening, and I couldn't be prouder.

"I personally have only noted a slight change in behavior, but Mrs.O who was here last week, stated she noticed a big difference in T's behavior. Apparently, T has always tried harder around me in doing what she's supposed to be doing, so the difference in behavior is small.

What we do continue to work on is her oppositional behavior. Today was a great day and I told her so. I wanted to share with you an incident that occurred a couple of days ago. We were at recess and I spotted T coming to me with a big scowl on her face. I assumed she was going to tell me about something someone had done, but she just gave me a hug and didn't say anything. I hugged her for a while and when she was ready, she took off to play again. I'm not sure why she appears to always be grumpy or mad.

Yesterday during instruction time, the children took turns reading sight word cards. The way I get the rest of the class to focus is by having them say, "NO" if the child misreads a word. Well, when T missed a word and some called out, "NO" she grew angry, and yelled at them with a huge scowl on her face not to say that. I told her that it was okay if she didn't like it, but that she needed to ask them nicely to not say anything when she missed a word. I modeled it for her, and she did as I told her. The children readily complied with her request.

Today we had a talk about it not being enough for her to just do her work to get computer time. She needed to do her work without complaining, and putting forth her best effort. She told me she could do that,and apologized for not listening to me at recess the other day. When the children forgot the request she made to them yesterday about not calling out "NO," she very gently and politely reminded them that she did not want them to say, "NO." They again readily complied. I was SO proud of her.

T had a great day and I told her so.:)

Mrs. G"


Just a few weeks ago, T would not have complied with any of that. It is amazing the changes that are happening. I am bursting with pride.


Psalm 40:1
I waited patiently for the LORD; he turned to me and heard my cry.