Melissa Josef

Posted on 10/27/09

I can understand your frustration. Try walking in the class
one day and standing at the front of the room confidently
saying nothing until they quiet down. Then calmly announce
that "we" are start the class with a clean slate. Remain calm
and confident and do not lose eye contact with your class.
Take a chart and tell them that together you are going to
create a set of classroom rules that you will all abide by.
Don't back down. Essentially what you want them to come up
with are rules of etiquette for the classroom. Ask them what
responsible behaviour looks like. Ask them how they like to
be treated by other people. Ask them how they think a
classroom should sound if people are trying to learn. Ask
them how they think students should behave if they are going
to learn. Ask them why they should learn. Ask them why they
are in high school English. Write down their answers and
treat them with respect and in turn ask them to treat you and
each other with respect. Ask them calmly and confidently.
Create a list of classroom rules and tell them that if they
break the rules, there will be a consequence. Make the
consequence for the first offense something like standing on a
rug a the back of the room quietly until the end of class.
For a second offense make it something like eating lunch in
your room to make up the lesson lost. They want to get kicked
out of class, so make the consequence painful. For a third
offense, have them do an extra writing assignment on why they
continue to waste valuable class time. Only after three
strikes would I send them to the principal. Good luck!

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