I have a student whom I shall name “Jane Doeâ€, she is approximately 50 years old; she is the only white female in the classroom (the others are comprised of 1 African Male and the rest African females and I am Latino). But she possesses the ability to become a good paralegal. Jane is always two steps ahead of the rest of the class and likes to assist the other students during lecture and during computer class time. The plus side is she can alleviate some of the directions I can be pulled into but more often than not she gives them how to complete the assignment without explaining why which then causes more work for me in the long run. This situation has added unnecessary stress to the classroom for several reasons. First, when I request that she hold her comments or opinions to her colleagues until break time, she feels that I'm picking on her. Secondly, she allows her “boredom†to be known to the class through loud sighs and paper shuffling. Last, she talks about her personal life out loud quite often, then thinks that the rest of the class is talking about her behind her back.
Jane has gone to my supervisor complaining, that “I am picking on her†but could not give any specifics or evidence to support her allegations, my supervisor, Jane and I met and I allowed Jane to voice her concerns and I validated her feelings – I explained that I'm here to teach not judge and as her instructor my job is to teach all my students, leaving no-one behind to wonder what's going on.
In closing, I must add that I will not judge her as a person and I will continue to teach her as my student. I will exercise extreme caution when grading her papers just to make sure that I'm not adding my personal frustration into her work performance – I believe in being fair. But I cannot wait until her graduation date.
Any and all suggestion will be taken into consideration with great appreciation.
