I love my job!
My second biggest problem student's mum cancelled her lessons effective immediately because she needs to focus on her class work. Evidently she's a problem in general, not just for me. :)
My biggest problem student had a complete reversal of attitude and behaviour yesterday. I have a quick quiz/activity at the end of each lesson which the kids love cox they win prizes. I only let them join in if they've been working hard and not distracting others and all that stuff. I gave this kid plenty of warnings and encouragement last week, and made it clear to him 5min before the end that "this is your final warning, work on your piece for the next 5 minutes or you'll sit out at the end".
He sat there sliding his hands up and down his keyboard and those of the girls next to him for that 5 minutes so I had him sit on the ground at the back of the room while the others did the activity. On his way out the door, he shouted "I quit!" and ran off.
This week, he was a completely different child. He came in and sat nicely at the keyboard, practiced what I told him to, and even helped one of the girls with her headphones! I didn't see him messing around with the keyboard even once! When I let him join in the flash card quiz at the end, he was really eager to participate (he'd been completely disinterested in the first week) and won two prizes.
His classroom teacher tracked me down at lunchtime and was as flabbergasted as I was at his change in attitude. Apparently he'd gone back to class and told her all about how well he'd done in the lesson and showed her what he'd won!
I'm so glad that he's had this change. When I spoke to his classroom teacher a couple of weeks ago to check if he had ADD or anything like that (to be sure that I was treating him fairly) she agreed that he has a lot of potential. He's a smart kid, and I suspect that a lot of his bad behaviour is likely due to boredom. Here's hoping that he continues to act this way!