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[slac_vap]

I have another suggestion that has worked for me. Tell the student that the other students understand the assignment and you have to move forward discussing class material. If she is still confused, she should come to office hours or schedule an appointment to discuss the assignment details. It is very unlikely that she will ever show up in office hours. The lazy ones rarely find time to do so. Also, she may be just trying to distract you so you don't cover as much material. Students play a game to see how long they can keep us off topic.

When I taught junior high school, I could send students to the principle, or summon their parents for a parent-teacher conference, or keep them in at recess. Maybe that is useful here. Oh, no, it's not. That won't work.

I am impressed by how you were able, in a single post, to tie together responses to both the original topic of the thread and the hijack.  It is a dazzling display of inTRAthreaduality!

I hoped that by encouraging her to talk to a classmate who had made progress on the exercise, it would lead her to see that it really wasn't a matter of my instructions being unclear, but of her not getting it.  But I appreciate your suggestion, and I think when this comes up again I will tell her to come to my office hours since she seems to be having more trouble with the material than her peers.  Oy, but even as I write that it sounds odd.  I'm not sure why.  I need to reread your post and others and give them more thought.

[notaprof]

Dear slac_vap,

I didn't really mean your thread was wicked, that was just some free association when I typed that the thread was dead, it reminded me of the song.  But your student does sound a bit witchy.
Try throwing a bucket of water on her the next time she rolls her eyes. 

I am sorry that this student is usurping so much of your time but I agree that you should offer some of your time out of class and if you offer this in front of the class then you can come off as the gracious one.  However don't imply that she needs special help or is having trouble that others are not having, because then you will hurt her precious little self esteem, which she probably has precious little of despite her impudence.  Just tell that you need to get back to your class plans now but you would be more than happy for the two of you to continue this during your office hours.  With your vap status, I am sure you are giving a head's up to your dean about this situation

[prytania3]

I'm afraid I'd be losing my patience with this one, but I guess I would take her aside and say calmy and kindly, "If you want praise, then you should start with doing the assignments."

Mackeral smack for this one.

[slac_vap]

I would love to tell her to grow up, and that this isn't high school...  but take a peek at my moniker and perhaps you can see why I won't.

I feel stupid but I'm going to ask anyway ... what does the VAP stand for?

No problem, Avaya!  The VAP stands for Visiting Assistant Professor, which, of course, is a very fancy way of saying that I have no tenure, and no guarantee of employment after June 1, 2007.

[econ_anon]

Yesterday we worked on part 2 of the in-class exercise we started Tuesday.  This part required even more of that "thinking" stuff that seems to be so bothersome to some students, and particularly bothersome to this student.  This time, I apparently made this student "feel stupid" because I didn't give the class specific enough instructions on how to find the answer (in fact, what they were working on was a replication of a set of exercises that was done step-by-step in the reading, and which I had previously lectured on; also, the majority of the class had a little difficulty but were able to do it with some guidance, which was my expectation).  Additionally, I was "deeply discouraging" to her because when she told me she was confused, I tried to guide her to follow the example in the assigned reading (which she hadn't read) rather than simply tell her how to do it. 

I tried to express to her that this active learning exercise was a chance for them to attempt to apply the things they had read and that we had discussed in lecture.  I noted it was my expectation that students would read the chapter first, then listen to lecture and ask questions if needed (she asked none during lecture), then do the in-class exercise, then read the chapter again.  I reminded her that this as not a graded assignment, and that it was okay to struggle with it, but that it was important that she at least try.  I told her she could also ask a peer for help if my instructions were hard to follow, and that I actually encourage that in this case.  She still came back with "I don't understand why you won't just answer my questions."  (The question being, apparently, "Will you do this for me... and then tell me I am awesome?")

Ick... I take it back about her needing mental help.  I blame the middle-school concept and am sorry you have to deal with this!  On the plus side, the middle-school concept cohort is graduating across the country (it was replaced by a return to "standards" in many places) so there shouldn't be too much more of them as life goes on until it comes back into vogue.

I think you handled that the best you could.  My class at the beginning there was a lot of complaining that I wasn't hand-holding enough, but after enough repetition of how part of learning is learning to do things by themselves and explaining why the class is required and how it will help them later on when they're on their own to do harder stuff now (I gave them a training wheels analogy)... eventually they mostly all seem to believe it.  I also parrot my mom a lot and say that challenge builds character and difficult homework is good for their soul (I may get in trouble for saying that some day...).  I don't know that your student can be saved, but luckily she's only one evaluation!