Scott Lawson

The poor behavior can also be contributed to an outside issue that may have nothing to do with the class or yourself as the instructor. You may also remind the student of a person that they had a severe personal conflict with (as she to your sister). The student may have other personal issues causing tension and they respond during the class time. We have been taught that as a professional and teacher to look within ourselves and to try and get to the root cause of the behavior and get the student help to resolve the issue that is the root cause and not to take the behavior personally.

If possible ask the student for a private conference away from the other students and ask if there is something that is causing the “issues”. If there is hopefully you have a resource at the school that can provide some support.

Stephanie Wingate

Whether intended or not, the student's behavior is pushing your buttons. Take a timeout to see what is really the issue. I had a student once who drove me crazy and I was very critical of her performance. Once I realized that she both looked and acted similar to my sister (who I have problems with) I was able to separate them and was able to be more fair. You need to evaluate what it is that is testing your patience. If it is a concrete issue that needs to be addressed as it relates to a learning objective, give the student the appropriate feedback. If they don't know that you find a behavior unacceptable they can't fix it.