Whatever you do, be consistent. If you say you're going to do such-and-such if they act out, you better do it! Talking individually with the worst students is a good idea. Shouting doesn't work so stop trying. With that grade level you might do hand motions, like ';If you can hear me, raise your hand.'; Then a few kids might raise their hands; keep asking but have them do different motions, like ';if you can hear me, touch your head,'; etc. Keep going until everyone is following what you do and they forget what they were in the middle of doing.
I also do class competitions. Each class of kids competes with the other classes (I have four total classes a day). I keep a big chart on the board that records their actions. Like one day it might say ';block 1 entered quietly today and got right to work'; and put some points next to it. Or I might write ';too much noise and off-task behavior with block 2 today'; and subtract points. At the end of the week whichever block has the most points (or least behavior problems) gets to have free time.
The other thing you can do is have a class meeting. You get everyone's attention and you take a seat in the front. You tell them that we have some things to discuss and that changes need to be made. You might even put up a poster and elicit ideas from them, like what would they like to have as a reward for good behavior or something. Including them in the decision-making of the class gives them responsibility and ownership for their own actions. State your expectations clearly; you might even model what you don't want to see happen anymore.How to control a junior class of Spoiled Brats???
You're very welcome. I hope everything works out to your favor :) :)
Report Abuse
1. students will test you to see if you are serious
2. never ever let them see that they have succeeded in pushing your buttons.
3. my biggest rule is ';praise in public punish in private';
4. try fredjones.com for some great tools on class control
1st. Slow down the pass. Start giving out worksheets that will take the whole class period to complete, and grade them each night. Tell the kids that if they want to be like 7th graders, you'll just give them worksheets all day and you will kill their grade in the class if they don't quietly complete them. -Your first day of this, you'll get most unfinished, and just grade them harshly, let them see the F and give another. This also builds a case to fail the bad kids later on.
2nd. Start targeting kids. Kids feel safe being bad because there are too many of them for any one to get in trouble. So randomly kick kids out... and kick out kids who normally don't get in trouble. I do a three strike thing, but I can strike someone out in less than a minute if they argue.
3rd Always make sure the goal of the class is more desireable than the direction bad classes go in. I have two types of lessons.. good kid lessons and bad kid lessons, and classes normally aim to get the good kid lessons because they are more mature based activities. But I give plenty of bad kid lessons too.
And remember, every teacher has bad classes. If every class was really bad for you, maybe part of it would be you, but it should be expected even with the very best teachers that they'll have classes that they'll need to treat like 7th graders... it happens to everyone so don't feel too bad.
If they are truly spoiled, try to get them involved in something outside of themselves. I introduced my class to The Pencil Project. You can visit the website to learn more...
www.thepencilproject.com
Anyway, each morning the kids would bring in pencils that they had collected for a needy school. You wouldn't believe the teamwork and compassion that emerged when they realized that they were making a difference. Kids act this way because they don't feel important. We collected 2800 pencils for charity and my once unruly students turned into angels!!!
Good luck!
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