Side Conversations

Jason is a student who sometimes gets under my skin. In the middle of the discussion he was talking to the student sitting next to him, giggling, eating food and making side comments. Other students were starting to get frustrated because his side conversation was making it difficult to focus and hear the discussion. After Chris, another student, made a thoughtful comment, Jason asked me to repeat what he said. I said, "No, why don't you pay attention and stop having side conversations.” Looking a little bit surprised and embarrassed, he said “Continue” in a rude tone, then went right back to having his side conversation. Usually I try to ignore Jason, since I find that the more I engage with his disrespect, the more he becomes disrespectful. But, I have a line, and Jason’s next comment crossed it. After one of his peers across the class had spoken, he called out, “boring!” He crossed the line, and I did not think it was okay to let the behavior continue and let him disrespect his classmates, or me. I could ask to talk to him outside, but risk the discussion descending into chaos. I also could have let him continue, since most students were ignoring him. However, this risked other students believing I didn’t have control of the classroom. Or, I could have stopped the discussion and simply asked if he needed a minute to refocus, which risked breaking up the flow of the discussion.