Sorry posted early.

Quote from: Pyrite on May 13, 2012, 01:18:13 PM

There are a lot of creative ideas in this thread, I particularly like the pictures of sleeping students idea. I am currently teaching at an all girls academic high school for the 2nd year.

During my first year I taught 1st grade students only, there were 10 classes with around 40 students each and they had class twice a week. I had some students who had studied English abroad in the same class as students who had difficulty answering 'how is the weather?'. I never had a co-teacher in the classroom with me. Fortunately I still had support as I was given 10% of the students English grade so that my class would have value to them, and particularly difficult students were sent to my co-teacher to talk about their attitude. What I did to control my class last year?

1. I tried to be friendly with my students from the beginning.
- While this worked at first it caused problems later as the did not take me seriously when I tried to get control of a class having a bad attitude day.

2. I established a list of rules at the beginning so that students knew what I expected from them.
- This was effective through the year, especially since they were posted on the wall and I could point to them and ask a student to please read rule 'X' for me.

3. I reminded the students that I had control over some of their grade and made notes about students.
- At the beginning I let the students choose their own seats so it was hard to accurately record their behavior. Later that had to pick their seats and write their name and number on a seating plan. This allowed me to be better able to record student behavior as well as call on trouble students by name, which usually takes them by surprise.

4. When the class was getting very noisy and students were not paying attention to me instead of shouting over them I would hold up my hand and count down from 5. Each time I got down to zero I would put a minute on the board, for each minute on the board they had to wait quietly for a minute after the bell that ends class. I would continue the countdown until all the students were quiet and looking at me.
- This worked well throughout the whole year, it made students police themselves and make some students try to always pat attention as they could end up with 5 minutes on the board before anyone notices my countdown. I also rewarded the quieter students by letting them leave 'earlier' not having to serve the whole penalty. The noisier students at the end were a smaller group and easier to talk to about their behavior.

5. Give them candy and/or other prizes. Since the different English levels, student attitude and large classes with no co-teacher made running activities very difficult, I would occasionally reward groups of students with candy for participating in class. This was a random event so students would not know if it would happen this class or not, in an attempt to get students to try to participate in every class just in case.
- This worked okay. I made sure to reward participation instead of good use of English as I wanted to stress that students should try to use English, as well as not to have lower level students just give up. I even had a class project at the end of the year where each class was to make a class magazine. The magazines would be voted on by their other teachers and the winning class would get a pizza party. I told them of this prize ahead of time as I wanted them to work hard and participate. This went well and the results were amazing and although the classes that did not win were a little disappointed they all had better attitudes for the rest of the year. Too bad I did this near the end  :( oh well.

6. Make them stand. Students who were causing lots of disruption in the class were made to stand at the back of the classroom, if that did not stop the problem they were sent out in the hall where other teachers would see them (I noticed Korean teachers sending students out in the hall and adopted it for my class as well.) If students refused to stand I would tip their chair forward and then pull it out from under them, they would either have to stand up or fall onto the floor. (I never had a student fall, they all stood up before I got that far.)
- This worked okay most of the time, I had a couple of students who decided to defy me anyway they could so they would walk over to a friend and sit on her lap. When sent to my co-teacher they behaved better for a class or two and then went back to their old tricks.

7. Take it away. Students who bring cell phones or books for other classes to my class get those things taken away from them. The rule if I see it at the beginning of class I take it away and put it at the front of the class, after class they can retrieve it and go about their day. However, if I see them using it during class instead of focusing on the class I take it away add a note with the student's name and number and after class give it to either their homeroom teacher or an English teacher in the office (the English teacher would then pass it on to the homeroom teacher).  The student can then ask their homeroom teacher to get their items back and explain their behavior.  Also the student will face some form of punishment depending on the homeroom teacher.
- This worked well, students caught this way rarely repeated their offense. I also had several students who were required to come to me and apologize for their behavior, which gave me a chance to reinforce a change by talking to them about their attitude in class and how it can be improved. By the end of the year students were voluntarily placing their items at the front of the classroom before class started so they would not have to worry about those items being taken away.

This year I was looking forward to teaching a new group of students so that I can fix some of the mistakes I made last year. However due to a change in the English program I am teaching 2nd grade for the first semester and 1st grade in second semester. So I am currently teaching the same students as last year. Some other changes also occurred this year. Instead of teaching 40 students the classes were split in half (unfortunately not based on English ability) so I would be teaching around 20 students instead (although this does mean I have the joy of teaching the same lesson 20 times a week). I was given 10% of their English grade again but now I was able to decide how to determine their grade for my class. Changes I made to keeping control of my class this year:

A. Grade: I made it almost all participation. If the participate in class they get marks if they don't do anything they get nothing. Also I use the 3 strikes system, if they break a rule they get 2 warnings, the third time they will get an attitude score which means negative points on their class grade. Students who get an attitude score can do an extra English activity to remove it from their record. Each month I show them their score so that they know if they need to participate more or change their attitude. As well if they continue to be a problem I told them I will not fight you, I will simply talk to your other English teachers (I made a point of getting to know them all) and that English teacher will talk to you about your attitude.
- This works well, so far I have not had any trouble with my students they are all more willing to focus on the class and to participate in it.

B. Give them something to do. Use more tasks based learning or give them activities. Try to stay away from PowerPoint presentations or lessons where the teacher does most of the talking. I know that many times it seems easier to do these kind of lessons especially when there are so many great lesson ideas in PowerPoint format on the internet like on this site. However, I find that for my classes when I show them a PowerPoint, the longer it is the more likely I will have some students causing problems in the class and the more often I do these kind of lessons the earlier the problems start. Instead this year I try to quickly present the idea or topic and then give them a handout with some kind of task or ask them to make or practice making conversations about the topic. Then I have students come to the front of the class to present their answers or conversations. Which gives them extra participation scores. (See point A)
- This works fairly well as it keeps the students more entertained and involved with the class as well as fulling the point of a conversation class by making them practice conversation. Also while they are working it gives me a chance to visit every group so that I can help them or give them encouragement. I know it is easier with the smaller class size, but I think I could adapt it to a larger class setting should I need to.

C. Small changes. I made several smaller changes to things that worked well my previous year.
   i) Assigned seating - students are no longer allowed to pick their seats, they sit where I tell them to and I have a list of their names and numbers on a seating chart. This allows me to have much more control of the class as well as being what they expect from their other classes. If my class feels very different from their 'more normal' classes then they feel they can also act differently. So I stopped that.

  ii) Standing and Extra Minutes - I only use this in extreme cases since I have more control over their grade, negative scores are more scary. It appears as though 2nd grade students care more about their grades then 1st grade students so scores work well. I may have to adjust next semester when I switch over and if you are not fortunate enough to have some of their grade this may work for you.

  iii) Candy and Prizes - Like point ii) I am currently only using this in very rare cases as I find marks for participation much more effective, however again this may not be possible for you. (Maybe you can ask your school for a small part of the English grade.) I stress it is important to reward the attempt instead of successful use of English and let your students know this. I find it makes more students try to participate and be less concerned with getting the right answer or having good pronunciation.

  iv) Take it away - Last year I gave students a chance to put those trouble items away first or waited until I saw them using it before saying anything. This year I recommend that they leave it behind in their classroom, and is now part of the class rules. If they don't trust leaving it behind then I provide a place where they can safely place it during the class where it will not distract them. If I see it on their desk they must place it at the front. If I see them using it during class it is taken away right away and they can talk to their homeroom teacher (having said that due to the policy I made last year with them and telling them at the start of class to put it away, I have not had to take anything to their teachers)

  v) Be serious from the start - Let your students know that you are serious about their attitude from the beginning and that if they behave then as a class we can have some fun. I use game classes where I use PowerPoint games and/or other style games as a reward for good attitude. I tell them if you cannot pay attention during a lesson, how can you pay attention during a game. So far this is working well. Also too many game classes tend to make students think that your class is a joke class and not something they should take seriously. Therefore it will become a sleep/homework/free time class for them.

D. Finally, don't hold grudges. Treat each class as a fresh start for each class and student. Also let your students know this. At the beginning of the year I told my students that I treat all students the same. I don't care if they are one of my favorite students who talks to me often during break time or even if they are family, if they are doing something wrong they will get into trouble. I don't care if they are a student who gave me a lot of trouble last year or last class, I don't hate you, I am not just looking at you to get you into trouble, as long as you pay attention and participate you will be fine. After I said this I saw several of the trouble students from last year visibly relax and have not had any issues with them so far.

I know that every school and classroom situation is different and some of these may not work for you. I hope that you can find something of use from my experiences. I know that I am very fortunate to have the support of my school and my co-teacher, despite the fact that I am alone in the classroom. I am also fortunate to be teaching at a school where I am teaching a niece of mine. I married a Korean my first year here and her oldest sister's first daughter attends my school and my class. This gives me a unique opportunity to find out what students think of me, my classes and my classroom policies. Based on what I learned from her I have made some adjustments.

I hope that you find a way to maintain control of your classes so that you may have an enjoyable teaching experience.  Good Luck!