story of the week

Well, here's an interesting little situation that came up last week. I thought you guys would like to hear it. It was the beginning of the week, and I had been observing most of the day. I usually sit in the front of the room by the computer, although occasionally I sit in the back corner. It was fifth period, one of my cooperating teacher's most difficult groups of freshmen. A student, Steve, had been misbehaving all period, and finally Mrs. Stahly moved him to the other side of the room, away from the tempting conversations with his friends. By this time, he was pretty upset. It happened to be one of the rare moments that I was seated in the back of the room, and I think Steve forgot I was sitting there, because as Mrs. Stahly turned her back, he flipped her off with both hands, and silently shouted, "Asshole!" I was stunned. From everything that I'd seen up until that point, there was nothing to indicate that the school had students that acted out like this. I felt a little panicky--should I say something? I knew I needed to do something, because every student around Steve had seen what he'd done. For a moment I just sat there, wondering how to handle it. Then I calmly walked to the front of the room (although I didn't feel calm at all!), and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Steve grow pale. With my back to the students, told Mrs. Stahly she needed to send Steve to the principal's office because he'd just flipped her off. She didn't even blink. She serenely told him to go to the office, and he silently packed up his bag and left. The other students just stared at me. My hands were shaking for the rest of the period. Who knew that disciplining students could be so frightening?

I'm not usually very good at confronting students, especially when I'm not exactly sure if what they're doing is really wrong. Half the time, I know a student shouldn't be doing it, but sometimes it seems so petty that I feel ridiculous for calling them down for it. I'm starting to get better at that though. I'm learning to be more of the teacher/babysitter/parent/watchful eye than friend/in touch/cool/letting things slide-person. Anyone else have an interesting encounter with a student?