Yesterday, a student asked to leave, and got up to head for the door. Instead, she took a detour, stopping to talk (during our discussion no less) to one of her friends on the way out the door. I stopped talking and gave her my what-do-you-think-you're-doing look followed up by my do-what-you're-supposed-to look. Most of the time, this is enough. This time, however, the student decided to challenge.
"What?"
"[Sarah], you have two choices. You can either leave for the bathroom immediately and stop disrupting the class, or you can sit back down and stop disrupting the class."
She stared for about 5 seconds with a defiant look before shrugging and walking toward the door. As she did, however, she called me a name which is seven letters long and has to do with the physical anatomy of the human posterior. Then she left.
I was shocked. It's one thing to be overheard saying that to a friend, but it's a completely different thing to say it to your teacher's face. I turned my back on the class and stood for perhaps ten seconds, fuming. After several deep breaths, I continued teaching and waited for her to come back. The rest went by with unfortunately normal circumstances. I sent her out of the room to the disciplinary office and informed her to wait until I got there so that we could talk. She didn't. I found her next class and waited for her to arrive. She ditched.
It was then that I knew where to find her. I waited for her at the one place during the one activity that I knew she'd never skip: lunch. We had our talk and hashed out our differences and started all over again the next day.
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