For what it’s worth, take a look at two books by Kerry Patterson and co, one titled Crucial Conversations, and the other Crucial Confrontations. They may have some gold nuggets in them that you could use when dealing with difficult people.

Available at

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=crucial+conversations&sprefix=crucial+con

Harry

From: Team-Based Learning [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Lynne O. Fox
Sent: Thursday, February 25, 2010 9:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Problem Student

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]">[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  Makes me think I should have been able to prevent this
> meltdown.