Our numbers at the alternative school continued to increase during the last part of the fall semester.  Many of our students returned to their home campuses at the beginning of the spring semester which meant reduced class sizes at our campus.  I have been working with a student who has not been motivated to do much more than sleep in my class for most of the time she has been there.  She will be with us the remainder of the year and failed to pass any of her core content classes.  The last week or so after some encouraging words during a staff meeting from our principal I began to work with this student one on one for a few minutes each class period.  At first we made minimal progress but today she seemed to really be understanding some of the concepts we had been covering.  She had to stay after school today for a discipline writing assignment but before leaving she found me and asked me to get her test review.  In the past I am sure she would have hit the road and not given her education much thought.  I was very proud of her and her actions and felt very good about what took place.  So many of our students have rough home lives with very little positive support and sometimes (me included) I think we forget how far a little attention can go.  I have been observing my students over the past semester and one thing I believe is that we can make a difference with the at risk, special ed, and discipline students we work with at the alternative school as long as we have reasonable numbers of students to work with.