Never Dull

So, I'm a music teacher, right?
Yes, but I'm also a consulting teacher on classroom management / social skills / community building. Confidentiality and professionalism prevent me from divulging many details, but here are some things I've been chewing on over the past week:

1. The second-grader who cries/pouts when he can't sit with the teacher.
2. The second-grader who just can't seem to let one go without comment.
3. Do we call CPS on _____? (A tougher call than you might think.)
4. The fifth-grade girl making a "bad people" book and writing in it things that aren't necessarily the whole truth.
5. The sixth-grade boy embarrassed at his deficits and struggling to see his strengths. (Actually, several of these.)
6. The colleague struggling to see good in a child I personally adore.
7. Boy-girl issues with 12-year-olds (I always seem to be the default relationship counselor.)
a. Should I ask __ out? (answer always: what do your parents think?)
b. I'm going out with __. What should I get her? (answer always: a teddy bear)
c. Should I maybe get her earrings instead? (answer: NNNNNNNOOOOOOOO)
d. I like ____ but she's going out with ___. (answer always: It's not your time. Let it go.)
8. A colleague who asks for suggestions, but I experience tells me they won't be tried.
9. Better ways to acknowledge students' social success without feeling like we're buying them off. Right now, we don't buy children off - with candy, Mt. Dew, etc. - and that's a good thing. But our recognitions seem a little lacking somehow.
10. What to do with boogers (always a kindergarten issue this time of year).
11. A class that is ostracizing a newcomer who seems perfectly happy being ostracized, and overtly plans how to keep it that way. Deep down she wants to belong (we all do,) but she has a veneer of alabaster.

February is a long, long month. But I know that discussing these issues now will help us have a bountiful spring.