School - A glimmer of hope

It's Thursday and it's been 48 hours since I sent the Principal a message. I still haven't heard anything from him. However, yesterday afternoon I received an email from Penelope's Lead Teacher wanting me to know that Penelope was having an "off" day, really having a hard time focusing and she moved her seat and tried to redirect her. She has been"trying very hard to stick to what the DVD recommends and being very firm with her." This just confirms it for me that the Principal had forwarded my message on. He should still call her write me back to set up a time to meet. But regardless, this is a good sign!
The other thing is that she had mentioned in her email that she was sending home the 3 reading packets Penelope didn't finish in class for homework and that she asked Penelope if she was done with her Spelling Packet and she said she was. I knew that to not be true because she was suppose to work on it the night before but "forgot" it in her desk.
I responded to the teacher thanking her for sharing the information and trying to implement the techniques on the DVD, offering to work with her to come up with ideas to get Penelope through this initial rebuttal stage to these new ways - since I believe that's what she is doing. But I also told her that she needs to call Penelope out on her lies, but without lecturing her - like the DVD recommends. I told her that if I were in her shoes, during the afternoon homeroom (before kids leave for the day) go up to Penelope with another teacher and say "I was just telling how you already have your Spelling Packet done. Why don't you get it out and show us?" She would then hesitate or find some excuse why she couldn't. Then when she finally does and she sees that it's not done say "So you really didn't have it done. Hmm. Good to know." And then walk away. That way her lie totally backfires on her. It's better than punishment because it doesn't seem intentional. It's a consequence.
Her teacher responded loving that idea. She even wrote later that evening saying that she did it and it totally worked. Penelope claimed she forgot she told her that - as a means to say there was no point in showing it to her since she never said that. But then, after being prompted again to show it, she had left it in her desk, not ready to take it home to complete since it was due the next day, which made the idea work better than planned. Besides being busted in a lie - with a witness, she also was busted for not having it to take home too.
Oddly enough, I think that kind of "painful" experience had a positive impact on her. She is testing and she isn't getting the results she wants. She came home from school yesterday afternoon, right after that happened, and was acting hyper. She also was trying to lie about the littlest things. She told her papaw, who was working with her on her homework, that she was going to buy a salad for lunch but there was a fly in it. I made us dinner that included a salad and my dad tried to offer her some. He told me the "story" that Penelope had told him about wanting salad for lunch. We both laughed about the "ridiculous lie." I told him how she always is claiming that the milk is curdled or their is a bug in the food at school. Penelope just looked at me like with big bewildered eyes "Isn't she going to get mad?" At that point I changed the subject like I didn't care. She was embarrassed that she was busted, but she didn't get mad. SHE DIDN'T GET MAD. That would have totally made her mad in the past. She doesn't want to be seen as ridiculous or be in an embarrassing situation. She is testing. That wasn't the only lie she tried yesterday. Before she started her homework, she wanted to alert me to the fact that the night before, her butt was leaking poo.... and there was something else but I can't remember. She likes to manifest an injury and/or illness to distract from herself when she feels pressured. It's better than it use to be, but it was aparent that was what she was doing.
Anyway, I will have to say it was an overall good day.