How can I get control of my class?

Question

I am a 5th year teacher and it is my first year at a new highschool. However, I can't seem to get my freshman class under control. No matter what I do! They never listen. I keep them after for a half hour, I send them to the principal and I send them to detention. NONE OF THIS WORKS. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME IDEAS!!!!

Answer 1

I would start contacting parents and telling them that their child may fail your class because the child is so out of control. I know that when my girls were in high school I only had to receive one phone call per child and I took care of the situation.

Answer 2

Your class needs to know that you and only you are in control of the classroom. The best teachers I had where the ones that did not take stuff from the students. Sending the kids to detention does not do anything to them if there are no other consequences...They act up ...they go to detention and then what? Try Natural consequences,......keep assigning things...rather than have them go to detention keep them in the classroom writing the papers or invite the parents to the class...they will not want to be ashamed by the parents...or you could try reintroducing yourself to the class, ask who will listen in class and who will not....those that say no....and continuously interrupt the class should not be allowed to come to class until a meeting has occurred with the Principal and a parent...the student has to agree to come back and not interrupt and sign a contract.....those that say yes say and work on contract...create incentives for the students that stay......the ones that have been kicked out will want in when they hear about the incentives. You have to find something common that the kids like and use that to get their attention.

Answer 3

Wise Guy and Anne C. are both right. Anything you do has to have approval. You can't keep sending them to the pricipal because you will get a reputation. I've had principals pass out lists with the number of times each teacher wrote a discipline referral. If you work in a district where at least some of the parents care, I would try calling parents and explaining how their child is in jeopardy of failing your class. That might help. Anne C. has a good point. If you keep them busy, it will solve some of your problems. Some groups just can not handle discussions and lectures. If this is one of them, just go for the busy work for as long as it takes. Unfortunately, with the way all power has been taken from the public schools, your survival has to be your main objective. Good Luck!

Answer 4

The key is to keep your class contiuously engaged from the time that the bell rings until the end of class. I start my class with "Do Now" activities. The students should know that as soon as they walk in the door, they are to go to their seats and do that activity. It is usually something that takes 5-10 minutes.
I have an agenda posted on the board for every class. After the "Do Now" will be several activites. We move from one to the other with NO BREAK in between. I don't give them time to act out.
Some do, of course, and they are aware of my progressive discipline policy. Keep emotion out of your voice when you correct them, and NEVER YELL. Yelling just tells them that you are giving up control.
Instead of saying things like, "do your work," ask them what they are doing. For example, if they are supposed to be working on a set of vocabulary words but are obviously not doing the work, I go around and ask those that are off task, "which word are you working on?" The implied message is that of course they MUST be working, the question is what exactly are they working on?

I would suggest that you ask a more experienced teacher with some help in classroom management and go to your university libraray and do some reading.

Good Luck!

Answer 5

Read the book "Don't Shoot the Dog!: The New Art of Teaching and Training" by Karen Pryor. It's written from the perspective of an animal trainer, but the tricks in the book work on people as well (I've had success with them in the classroom, and with family members). Pryor explains how positive reinforcement can help with behavior management (and by positive reinforcement I don't mean candy/treats). The idea is to ignore bad behaviors and reward good behavior.

You can read an excerpt of the book if you click on the link below.

Edit: I was just re-reading the answers to this question and I noticed that someone had suggested that you give them free time at the end of class if they behave. So you know, in my experience this doesn't work. I had a teacher who tried this once and, not only did it not work, the class got worse.

Answer 6

Here is what I did with a class that had a similar temperament and it totally worked.

I took myself out of the equation for a while. Whatever I wanted them to learn, I had typed up with questions they had to answer. You can also give them books and articles with typed questions to complete. When they enter the classroom on the first day you start this, tell them that this is how things are going to work now (even though you won't have to do this forever...keep reading) - when they come in, there will be work to do on their desks. (Make sure it is enough to keep them busy the WHOLE time, too.) If they are disrespectful in any way or even TALK, give they will receive more work to do. Have backup work prepared - extra questions, a short essay topic about which to write. Anything not completed is due the following day and EVERYTHING is graded. The class had to be silent the entire time and they had to work very hard because I gave them enough to complete.

YES, this takes a lot of preparation, but it is so worth it! Maybe spend this weekend tweaking your upcoming week's plans and making them student autonomous. You will enjoy the silence, and the children will realize that they had it so much better before they took advantage of you.

When I did this with my unruly group, I made sure to make the point that class could be a lot more fun - for me AND them, and that they had really missed out because I was going to continue doing fun lesson plans with my other groups.

After a while of this, I was able to slowly go back to what I was doing before (add a little more "fun" each day) and they were very respectful.

I hope this helps - it worked for me! :o)

Answer 7

I agree with wiseguy. But, since all respect is gone and all authority is gone, I just don't have an answer.

What is your school policy on disclipline? Do you follow it? It probably won't help, either. It is the only legal way you can do something without fear of lawsuits, etc. If it is written in the legal policy, you can do it.

I think all this 'positive' and 'befriending' bs will just make the kids run over the teacher even more.

And I agree that you should not reward for good behavior, it should come naturally.
Just like paying a kid to do chores. Hell no! THey do it because they are suppose to!

You can't teach them respect anymore, I don't know what to tell you...

Answer 8

During my first year of teaching, I experienced a similar situation with a particular class. I tried every technique I could think of and nothing really worked. Once a group of kids decide on giving a certain teacher a hard time, no reward or punishment will ameliorate the situation. My advice to you is to do the best you can with what you have. Next year you will deal with different students - hopefully more courteous and pleasant to work with!
GOOD LUCK!

Answer 9

What saved me....
fredjones.com (Tools for Teaching)
love and logic (Teaching with Love and logic) Jim Fay
Harry Wong First Days of school

The 'love' doesn't mean letting them walk over you--it means respecting them--but demanding respect for yourself.
Fred Jones taught me about meaning business--and giving me tools to reward good behavior without bribery (candy)
Harry Wong taught me the difference between procedures and rules--and they all taught me that taking the time to teach behavior and expectations is worth it. Even if you aren't teaching your subject area for weeks because you are teaching behavior, you will regain that time later in the year when the kids are with you.

And...remember, every few years you get a CFH (class from h...) and surviving is the best you can do. Talk to their other teachers and find out if it's YOU or THEM. You can still improve your management, and make the year okay, but if it's mostly them, just slog through...

(MIddle school teacher for more than 25 years--loving it for about 20...)

Answer 10

befriend with them. what i did may not work for you since it´s very likely that you and i are different and may have different perspective of the world and for this case, the students. here it is. celebrate every little thing you wish your students to do in class, blow your horns to celebrate how good you feel having them as your students. don´t fake it. hell with the lesson plan, what you want to have the respect of your students for the long run. use the word " beautiful"
as often as you can. the more special you make them feel, the more special you´ll feel at the end of the day, not to mention energized for the next class. yes, you will run into hecklers, who no matter what you do to them or with them, they won´t change their behavior, but you are seen how you handle every situation, be firm at rules and compassionate with them. prepare you classes very well. i once read that a class is 1/4 lesson plan - 3/4 showmanship. the students must really think at the end of the class " my teacher really prepared a nice class for me". keep your cool, just like the comedian from Seinfeld, he got into a lot trouble for not being professional with his performance. some movies like "dangerous minds" may give you some tips. someone at blockbuster may give very good recommendations.
i am running out of ideas my e-mail is
[e-mail] for more specific problems. which i run into very often at my prep school. good luck or better yet go fish some students. i almost forgot, never ever criticize what a student does, says or how he or she looks. approval that´s something they gaspingly desire from their teachers.