Help!

[Nightshade]

Ok, so we all know I am not qualified as a teacher, however I have somehow ended up 'teaching' 29 classes across 10 grades . And my main problem is controling 25 screaming yelling overexcited 12 year old boys on my own ins a space that isnt big enough for them and without enough chairs. ( basically the library is just not big enough but they have decided I must conduct library lessons/ rading time in there.)I have decided that screaming is not working and while saying good job and good boy/ good girl works brilliantly with the 4-10 year olds by the time they are 11-14 they just take itas patronising. Now how do I sort this out?
Oh and how do I stop a boy tha is bigger and wider and heavier than me from picking up a boy that is also bigger wider and heavier than me and slaming him into a wall. SOfar I have manged to hold onto t-shirts and stop them by sheer force, but if I damage thir shirts the parents will go balastic... so what do I do exactly.
Oh and lesson plans anyone care to explain how to write those?

HELP!:yikes:

[The Comedian]

Night -- This sounds to me like you were too nice to them at the start. If you manage to survive this behavioral morass and (!!!) teach again, I recommend these rules:

1. Establish yourself as a hard ***: you need to be tough, strong, and send the message that you don't take no grief from no one. Wear a suit, pounce on even the slightest transgression -- the point here is that we're going to put a blockade at the top of that slippery slope.

Oh and figure out what they're afraid of: grades, public speaking, parent notification, etc. . . .use this knowledge to your advantage. Often. Remember this mantra: "Their fear is YOUR friend."

2. Ease up as the situation dictates. . . .

These two guidelines should help prevent future instances of what you describe here.

Okay, but none of this deals with the matter at hand. Well, sort of. You still need to come down as I described in number one (it will just have less clout). Then you need to do something drastic to symbolize a starting over. So. . . . re-arrange the room: make it look different. Then draft a manifesto complete with a host of terrifying punishments (Remember The Comedian's mantra: "their fear is your friend"). Next have the students read this manifesto aloud while you go into detail about some of the finer points of this new agreement. Then wait for the first student to creep across the line of decorum and. . .WHAMO! Strict Punishment!

(The satisfaction of this last moment is so sweet and so satisfying that you'll want to commit it to poetry).

This should serve to calm the storm a bit. They'll probably hate you for a while, but you'll just have to say to yourself "hell with them" or some such thing so that you don't let it affect you. Then, once your authority has been re-established, you can back off a bit and they probably grow to respect you insofar as they learn a few things from your course.

Hope this helps!

EDIT: Kill the good boy/good girl stuff for a while. They deserve no praise for acting civil. You need to establish civil as the norm; anything above that may merit some praise.

[Nightshade]

Cool! thanks actually I did make one of my grade 6s go up and down 4 flights of stairs 4 times then as they still failed to behave we went BACK up once more and they all stood up while I got to sit chill and read Don quioxte. and I kept them back from part of thier PE lesson.
So I will just have to be that mean with everyone, but I can't wear suits as I don't have any and I need my bright happy colours to stay sane and keep smiling on days when I want to just run away!

[AuntShecky]

Gee, this sounds so familiar-- it takes me back to my substitute teaching days (which, if I were a religious person will knock plenty o' time off my eventual bid in
Purgatory.) The school district required the absent teacher to leave a lesson plan, which was normally easy to execute. What I used to do is break the kids up in groups and have them all work on that specific project, and tried to design it in some way for the groups to compete with each other. That way, they've got an incentive to finish
the work.

I used to have Scholastic-type magazines in which usually each issue had a playlet. I'd assign a student to reach each part in the play aloud (although they used to fight over which one would get to be the "narrator.")

And rather being a target (of thrown pieces of paper, spitballs, etc) I never went near the front of the desk. I always, always sat in the back of the room.

I never took an "education" course in my life; if I had, God
only knows what it would have done to my prose style!

Well, good luck to you, Nightshade. I know you'll need it.
But try to keep a positive attitude -- and don't forget to apply for combat pay!

[myrna22]

Ok, so we all know I am not qualified as a teacher, however I have somehow ended up 'teaching' 29 classes across 10 grades . And my main problem is controling 25 screaming yelling overexcited 12 year old boys on my own ins a space that isnt big enough for them and without enough chairs. ( basically the library is just not big enough but they have decided I must conduct library lessons/ rading time in there.)I have decided that screaming is not working and while saying good job and good boy/ good girl works brilliantly with the 4-10 year olds by the time they are 11-14 they just take itas patronising. Now how do I sort this out?
Oh and how do I stop a boy tha is bigger and wider and heavier than me from picking up a boy that is also bigger wider and heavier than me and slaming him into a wall. SOfar I have manged to hold onto t-shirts and stop them by sheer force, but if I damage thir shirts the parents will go balastic... so what do I do exactly.
Oh and lesson plans anyone care to explain how to write those?

HELP!:yikes:

For the long haul, it's good to have developed an approach that encompasses most if not all situations, especially if you are planning to be a certified full time teacher.

I recommend: Positive Classroom Management: A Step-by-Step Guide to Helping Students Succeed, by Robert C. Di Giulio

It may sound, by the name, like it won't deal with the problems you have, but the truth is, kids respond better to positive reinforcement than threats and trying to induce fear or intimidation, in the long run. And, it's easier on you: you don't have to be a hard-azz all the time.
You can get it through Amazon.com.