Reddit mentions of Getting the Buggers to Behave

Yes, we got some, including some specialist behaviour sessions from an expert! But the most numerous and useful tips I got are from the excellent "Getting The Buggers To Behave" by Sue Cowley. It should also be available from the US. In short, there's no one way to "do discipline", but there are certain things you can always be sure are not good ideas (e.g. humiliating a student in front of class), and some that are almost always the right thing to do (e.g. talking to them on their own after the lesson).

It is normal for new teachers, and especially subs, to feel like they have trouble. You don't know the systems, you don't know the kids and they don't know you. The best foundation for discipline as I've found it is a reputation, which takes time to build. If the kids know you aren't a soft touch, they won't try as much. Appearance is an issue at first, but stops being one once they know you. This doesn't help a sub much, sadly. Although this point from another comment is also excellent:

> I discovered pretty quickly though that it doesn't matter what you know or what skills you have, the students respond to your attitude and your display of confidence. They have no idea how old you are or how good at your job you are, so they essentially take you at your word the minute you open your mouth. You have exactly as much authority as you think you do, and as long as you stick with that you will be fine. Just imagine yourself as an actor on the stage playing the role of a master teacher. Being yourself is for going on dates, not teaching.

What I would like from any subs is that they give the work to the students, think about what I've really asked the students to do, and help out as much as they can bearing in mind they're probably not experts in the subject. If there are any students who refuse to do the work, get their names and let us know. I don't expect you to be able to get Lazy McSleeperson in the back row to do his work if I can barely get him to do it anyway, but I've sometimes come back and asked "So did you do the work I sent you? Did they play the video?" and been told that all the teacher did was put the email I sent up on the board.

Good luck in your career! I really do recommend that book.

I'm in the UK, so your mileage may vary on this, but personally I find comparing the US way with British methods quite interesting. We are definitely NOT allowed to just shout any more, and when I changed schools a few years ago I went from one that allowed it to one that absolutely didn't. Overnight, I found virtually all my classroom management techniques swept away from me and had to start from scratch.

I teach in a tough school in a deprived seaside town in the UK, with a high number of kids who have English as an additional language. It has the reputation as the hardest school to teach in in a 100-mile area. It's a comprehensive school in a selective area, which means the 25% brightest students go to a grammar school, leaving our kids - often with a sense of failure that they are "thick", and with a wealth of social problems - to come to us. There's a lot of poverty and drug use. Over here we merge Junior High and High School so the school is for 12-18 year olds (seven school years). There's a strong focus on vocational rather than academic subjects. I teach Modern Languages, which is on the National Curriculum (Common Core?) and therefore has to be taught even though it is an academic subject and most of the kids struggle with English in the first place. They don't want to learn my subject. I have to make them...

You've hit the nail on the head about engagement. Even my toughest classes get pulled in by presenting the right subject matter in the right way. I have a class of seventh-graders who I only see late in the afternoon - they're very low ability and disengaged. But by presenting the subject matter in the right way, especially at the start of the lesson, I can get them achieving what I want when I want it. Carefully structuring the activities, making sure there's a mixture of teacher-focussed activities with independent activities, and making sure you've differentiated appropriately, is absolutely critical. Looking at the material from left-field to see how you can introduce a difficult topic almost by stealth is the way I've managed to get this right so far.

Equally, giving regular feedback (and praise) to build up self-esteem works really well, even if it's going round with "well done" stamps or stickers, or using raffle tickets, or whatever. Works a treat.

Routines, as well - don't change up how you do things. If you want equipment out on the desk at the start, TELL THEM, get it right once (it might take a while) and then do that EVERY SINGLE TIME, EVERY LESSON. Hand signals, or a countdown, when you want them to be quiet and listen. That sort of thing.

With a 105 minute lesson you've got your work cut out to keep focus going, but I always find with my double lessons which are similarly lengthy, if you approach it as a series of smaller lessons (roughly, say, 20 minutes) with a small learning outcome for each it keeps the pace up and allows clear progress to be made. That said, it also gives you an opportunity for extended independent work with you circulating to keep focus and motivation going. But I always feel roughly 30 minutes of independent work is more than enough before they all grind to a halt - I would always aim for smaller, more structured tasks to be worked through.

Talking regularly to parents works well - especially positive phone calls, but of course negative ones too.

And finally, absolutely being a stickler for the rules of your classroom, enforcing them clearly and fairly and building that crucial atmosphere of leadership and learning and collaboration that all administrators over here are looking for. Use a classroom seating plan to dictate who sits next to who and enforce that. Give out 100 detentions if you have to. It works, not because the sanction actually does much to modify their behaviour, but it takes the balance of power away from them and towards you, and they know you mean business.

One of the books I always recommend to any of my team (I'm a Head of Department) struggling with classroom management is Getting the Buggers to Behave and I warmly recommend it to you also. But, if you have a Head of Department (Maths?) who is supportive then get them to do an informal observation of you to see if they have anything they can offer. Also see if you can observe anyone else in your school to see how they do it.

Classroom management is one of the toughest things about this job, but get it right and you're 3/4s of the way there. Hope it works out for you.