Student Relationships and Discipline

In the first few months of my first year of teaching, I had my fair share of student issues. Some of them still feel very raw and real, so I wanted to talk about a situation with a student that turned out to be a very positive experience. At the beginning of the year, I had several students testing me. One student in particular, let's call her N, liked to question my authority. She liked to call out and get up during class. There was one day that N called out and asked me when I was going to update her grade. I explained to her that I teach three different classes and that I could not give her an exact time that grades would be updated, but that it would be soon. N then said that she would have her mom tell me to update her grade. At that point, I realized I needed to take it to the next level and contact her mom myself.

I let N's mom know about her behavior. N's mom was very upset about how she was acting and said she would talk to N about it. The next day, I saw N and she apologized. N and I have grown very close after that incident. She's become a student that I can always count on when students start to get out of control. Although the route I took was effective, looking back, I should have talked to N privately first. She knew that she was being disrespectful, and I think that a one-on-one conversation could have fixed the behavior. At least now I know that her mom is in my corner whenever I need her.