aprm221, does your dd feel comfortable talking to her teacher or would she feel comfortable if this was brought up for discussion with the full class? All kids are different (personality) so this might not work for your dd, but fwiw, my youngest dd (4th grade) had an issue at school this fall where people were making fun of her nickname that we use at home. The kids weren't doing it with horribly mean intentions, and they didn't realize how much it was bothering her. When she asked me what to do my first suggestion was to ignore (she'd already tried that), my second suggestion was that she could talk to her teacher about it - but she'd already done that (she's a take-the-bull-by-the-horns type of personality, even at 9). Sooo... I told her I'd think about it for a day and try to figure out how to best deal with it. Meanwhile, the next morning at school when the class gathered for their every-morning circle time, the teacher asked if anyone had anything they wanted to talk about (totally coincidental, but apparently there was another issue going on in the classroom that the teacher was trying to ferret out).. and dd right away rose her hand and told everyone what had been happening with the teasing about her nickname and how it bothered her and how she wanted it to stop. And... it stopped! The teacher did right away step in and support what dd was saying and give wise sagely teacher-advise and warnings to everyone. But the cool thing was, dd stood up for herself and her teacher feels *thats* what made the big difference more so than if the teacher had tried to continue to get the kids to stop doing it.
Anyway, that's just one possible way to approach how to deal with it. There's no way on earth my other two kids would have felt comfortable speaking up about things in the same situation.
In this case, I would *for sure* request that the books your dd needs access to are somewhere where she can freely pick them herself, if that's what all the other kids are able to do with their leveled books. It sounds silly just reading this thinking that the books are stored away so high - I realize that classrooms are tight on space, but really, having 4-5 at a minimum books down where dd can reach them can't possibly take up that much space.
Re the other kids saying she's smart - this has happened from early on with my EG ds. I really don't think it's ever been used purposely to bug him, instead it's just that, he's obviously very smart. He's been through phases where it bugged him, but he's also come out the other side owning who he is in a very positive way as he's moved through the early teen years... so I wouldn't necessarily worry about this being something that develops into a *worse* issue later on - lots of kids, whether they are super-smart or different in a different way, feel weird and out-of-place if they feel like they are different starting around 4th grade and going on through middle school. The thing to do is to just keep giving them lots of positive reinforcement, helping them to see what's good about who they are, and helping them see that everyone has *something* that is different.
Best wishes,
polarbear
