Kathy, Keep in mind that you have a responsibility to the rest of the class to maintain a positive work environment. I suggest that you engage whatever office you have on campus that handles student disciplinary procedures. If this student is disrupting or threatening to the rest of the class, you have an obligation to have that individual removed. I had a student last semester that was prone to outbursts, including slamming doors. I was able to have him removed from class and even had a security guard placed at the door. The rest of the students were very grateful and things got back to normal. Cheers, Tom Tom DeWitt Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Marketing College of Business and Economics University of Hawaii - Hilo 200 W. Kawili St. Hilo, HI 96720 Phone: (808) 974-7384 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lynne O. Fox" <[log in to unmask]> Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010 18:43 Subject: Re: Problem Student To: [log in to unmask] ----------------------------------------------------------- | > Hello Kathy, > > I don't think it's something you could have prevented. Many years ago, I had a student like this. I wasn't using TBL, then. But the fact that I haven't had another student like that isn't because I've gotten better at handling them. It's because another one hasn't been in any of my classes. I think the reason most people have not had this problem is because it's relatively rare. It's not unusual to have a difficult student, but it does seem to be rare to have a student who is (seemingly?) immune to any attempts from faculty, or from fellow students, to change the behavior. In my class, students (even his friends) started sitting as far away from him as they could, and he just seemed to feed off this, rather than tone down his behavior. Yes, I think I could have handled it better, and that might have made things easier for me and for the rest of the class; but I don’t think it would have changed his behavior. So if you feel your interactions with the rest of your students are pretty good, don’t fret about this one. (I did, and for years, until I realized that there hadn’t been another like him and it was just a rare occurrence.) > > Best Wishes, > __________________________________________ > Lynne O. Fox, Ph.D. > MND 3032 > Department of Philosophy > California State University, Sacramento > 916-717-3980 > > Philosophy is the headache for which it is the cure. > (Attributed to both Wittgenstein and Wisdom.) > > > > On 2/25/10 5:11 PM, "Marjorie Baier" <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > Makes me think I should have been able to prevent this > > meltdown. |-----------------------------------------------------------