I like to think that I am a pretty level headed person, as most teachers are, but there is one thing that middle school students do that really gets on my nerves.  Today in class one of the students would not stop talking while Mr. Homan was presenting, so he told him to take a break.  This meant he had to go sit in the tab chair, examine his behavior, and then rejoin the class.  Well, the student stood up real slowly, stretched his arms, then. walked. over. to. the. chair.  One step at a time, leaned against the wall, slid down, sat in the chair for less than a second, stood up, then. walked. real. slow. like. back. to his desk, making sure to stop and talk to a couple of people on the way.  The whole process probably took 4 minutes, and he made sure he was a distraction the whole time.

The most infuriating part is that Mr. Homan just left it.  I couldn’t believe he didn’t say anything, especially after the amount of disrespect that the student showed him.  I would have had that student down to behavior support in two seconds.  There were other instance where this happened, and Mr. Homan ignored it, but this was by far the most egregious.

Is this just something that bothers me, or is it actually an important issue in the classroom?  When I ask a student to do something, I really expect them to do it right away, but is this one of the battles not worth fighting?