School in a paragraph

Or maybe in a word - hard. I have 24 students all of whom seem to come from difficult situations. Child services is involved with several children, a few speak almost no English, one is bipolar, several have learning issues and need testing, one has extreme anger/authority issues, and I have no regular aide and no flock of parent supporters. Last year I could teach half a day of school and cover, English, grammar, writing, handwriting, math, read aloud, comprehension, spelling and science. Whole days we plunged into history, art, music, and more science in the afternoon. Now, I am lucky to get most of the way through language arts and squeeze in a bit of math before dismissal. This week my child with anger problems punched my bi-polar kid in the back. Today, after a two day suspension, he returned. My high point of the day was this bi-polar child looking at the anger child and offering a bit of friendly wisdom (I have been working with him on self control all week). He said, "You know, when you get mad, put your hands together so you don't hit people and go get Mrs. Carter." I have been smiling ever since.