class control

[craker83]

Hey guys,

I'm in the fresh crop of ESL teachers who just got here one month ago. So far it's gone pretty well, the students are absolutely awesome and the co-teacher is nice. I just have this one class of complete rebels and [mod edit: ****]-disturbers. Every other class is absolutely perfect, no problems at all, but they seem to have put all the disruptive kids in one class. Nothing I have tried has worked. I tried getting the entire class to stand when they are talking in Korean but they just start walking around and talking. I've tried Chris' method of having the students bang the desk 3 times and call out my name, but that doesn't work as they just start talking right after. I've tried singling out certain students, but that doesn't affect the rest of the class. I've tried lecturing them on the importance of discipline and following the rules but that seems to have no effect...
I'm at a loss for methods. What sort of advice can you guys give me? What sort of things have worked in the past with disruptive classes?

Any help is appreciated! 

[luvrandi]

Have you tried team competition?  Group the students into teams - then have teams obtain points for participation, correct answers, etc.  It seems to work wonders with difficult students.  An incentive for the winning team presented at the end of class also helps. 

[sheila]

also if it's a problem where they keep talking, subtract points from that team and they usually get really quiet really fast.  Another thing which I found is, if you learn a little Korean, things like look up here and the friendly way to say stop talking, it usually surprises the kids into stunned silence.  Now, I don't need my co-teacher's help with discipline and class control so much because I know just a few simple terms.

[kaymac]

I make kids do push-ups when they get out of hand, I also take the noisy ones and make them sit smack right in front of the board on a special chair. Make them kneel in the hall... I guess it depends on age group also. I had one class last year that was terrible, and it got to the point where I gave two names to their homeroom teacher. They got punished and then the rest of the year they were in charge of taking names of bad students to give to the homeroom teachers. When we play games I minus points for noise too. I find just mentioning homeroom teachers can go a long way. Good luck!

[sonya]

Participation marks could also be helpful!  Bring your class list to everyclass and assign marks...your teacher may or may not use it but the students don't need to know that

I like the team idea as well! 

If all this fails, you could give a class set of rules to follow and identify consequences for breaking of said rules...I had to do this at my boys school a few years ago...the only time ever but this school had serious problems!  We took one class to go over my rules and they we agreed upon consequences acceptable to all of us. 

Good luck!

[workinginkorea]

I've had the same problem sometimes, though I don't have entire classes of chronic troublemakers. The usual Korean method of discipline at my school is simply to scream and beat the students if they misbehave, even slightly (which is completely ineffective, as well as only being an excuse to take one's anger out on the kids).  While I can't change it at the school, I have been able to get it stopped for the most part in my classes by talking with my co-teacher.  What age are your students?  What does your co-teacher do in this class as opposed to the others? 

Making teams can be good, but even that can be hard to get done sometimes, and the classes can get very loud quickly.  What kinds of lessons are you doing with this special class?  It might not just be the students themselves, but if they were more interested in the lesson they'd be more inclined to participate. 

[joybot0]

What grade?
Level?
You say you have a coteacher. I know their job isn't to be boss but are they doing anything at all? Do you coteach with them? Ask for their help. Definitely the group idea will best.

You need what is called "Class management" a structure in place that the students know. They all must know the rules and penalties and rewards. If elementary sticker charts work. Put them in their books. If group wins they all get stickers.. Most stickers at the end of year = prize. Works even for 6th grade.

[adawg45601]

first of all i'm normally pretty strict w/  my students so they know the rules. after about 2 weeks or so once they realize what you want they are pretty good. the ones that do act up have 4 steps to punishment. the students are more scared of me then my coteacher, because of them. so i don't have any problems in class.

1) stand in the front of the classroom. have the student stand one one spot and hold a dictionary with only 4 fingers (thumb and index fingers)....they cannot lean their hands in or move...for 5 minutes.
2) same as above. just a bigger dictionary, and for 10 minutes.
3) if the student does not listen still i make them hold a paper w/ their head against the front wall. if it falls they have to hold it up for a longer time. i used this on my worst student..it worked wonders.
4) homeroom teacher, or pushup in upgright position w/ dictionarys on back. the dictionaries cannot fall. if they do they go to homeroom teacher.

these are what i normally use.