Hi Tina, You did a very good job of outlining what you see your strengths are as well as the challenges of working with your students. As long as you have developed rapport with your students and you have developed a professionalism about yourself you will do fine. Being asked out to a social function by your students indicates that you have created a bond with them and they see you as a person they respect. Your refusal to go in no way hurts this relationship. I have the same policy and found that it has served me well. I do attend major events in their lives, such as a wedding, which helps me create a greater bond with my students. It all depends on how you feel about such events. I think an instructor can be a friend to a student, that is a person that has the student's best interest at heart, but not a buddy. Once you become a buddy you have removed the difference between a professional educator and a student. Doing this will doom you as an instructor and we have many case studies to support this. You can help the students that have different challenges in your class without fearing that they will appear because you will work hard to show that all students have an opportunity to get assistance from you if they really want it. Based upon the comments in your forum you are on the right track to providing quality instruction while motivating your students. Keep up the good work. Gary