I don't know how else to have handled this...

Midterms caused an uproar, particularly in my TTh class, the one that used to be so cooperative. Periodically, it was my fault for not filling something in, and I readily owned up to my mistake and fixed it. However, I have a select few that are severely challenging my authority. First of all, one student came to me with his paper, one that earned a strong 88%, a grade I consider high, and argued that it deserved an A. Now, I have no problem with a student coming to me to find out why it WASN'T an A and what they can do to improve it, but I found his attitude terribly presumptuous. Also, I added the annotated bibliography back into the papers' percentage, something that should actually work to their advantage if they bothered to turn in the work like I repeatedly asked them to do. Instead, I had two or three outright challenging whether or not I have any right to make changes to the syllabus. My syllabus. So I sent out this email in response (and possibly in my anger, I confess):

"I need to address some changes to the syllabus. As instructor of this course, like any other teacher or professor in this school, I have the freedom to change any part of the syllabus at any time, including how percentages fall. For example, I included the I-Search proposal and the annotated bibliography in the paper section, which, altogether, takes up 60% of the grade. For those who want me to justify it, I'm going to have to pull the dreaded "because I say so" card. This is the way it works best under these conditions for me as the instructor. Look, I encourage questions, but today I felt a bit challenged as far as my authority. I may barely be older than most of you (and younger than a couple), but I'm still the teacher. Let me just say, at the end of the semester, the percentages will add up almost exactly as they do in the syllabus, with a small change to the papers section. It's not worth getting worked up over. The fact of the matter is, if something was not turned in and you're worried about its affecting your grade, it would've affected it no matter what. The way I set it up actually makes it affect you less.

Please forgive me for being sharp about this, but in some of your approaches to me, I felt very disrespected today. Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I imagine you didn't mean for it to come across that way, but I felt attacked at times. At this point, unless you have a specific issue, like missing points for something you turned in that can be verified, I ask that you let me do what I decide to do. I will always try to work things out in a way that most benefits you, but you have to trust my judgment. If that's a problem for you, maybe you should be taking this class with another instructor. Again, I apologize if that sounds snotty or impatient, but I've got limits. I mean no disrespect for any of you; I simply insist that you treat me with the appropriate authority for my position. I may be a graduate assistant, but as for this class, I am the instructor. Period.

This rant is not relevant to the majority of you, so I'm not trying to scold the whole class. However, I do feel that this is a message the whole class needs to hear in case this comes up again. "

A large chunk of the disrespect I sensed came through tone of voice, primarily, and secondarily from when I would explain, but the students kept pressing the issue. I think this may be a bit on the sharp side, but I wanted to be clear. Maybe I'm just not good with confrontation, but I didn't know how else to deal with it. Had I spoken at the time, knowing me, I would've cried (the slightest bit of anger with me, and I start crying if I try to talk).

I would appreciate feedback.