How to handle difficult classrooms

As teachers, we all have encountered situations when it’s hard to handle the classroom where there are ‘toxic’ students, students who create chaos and confusion throughout the sessions, ones who fail our lessons and leave us with doubts about our skills of teaching and classroom management.

We have all experienced the situation, when one ‘toxic’ student can turn the whole class around where most of the students keep ignoring what’s happening in the learning time and challenge the teacher to higher their voices, act as a disciplinarian rather than an instructor, etc.

What are some of the most commonly heard complaints from teachers about such students?

1. This will never work in my classroom. John will make fun of the activity and turn it into an uncontrollable game.
2. It’s pointless to try to explain this to Nick, he will not understand it.
3. The students are not motivated. I don’t know what can work with them.

Just examples, right? But they happen 90% of the teaching time all over the world in all types of classrooms where the target audience is kids and teenagers.

So, complaints like these do no good both for the teachers and the students. How can situations like these be avoided? There are several things to take into consideration when trying to build a healthy learning environment.

Acting responsible

This may sound cliche, however, we all know that if there is no respect, no learning can happen whatsoever. By acting responsibly we mean showing the students that you are in charge of the classroom by planning for the lesson at your best, being ready with Plan B activities, regrouping the students when necessary, disciplining them per need and per the rules of the school you’re working for, working on your ‘teacher voice’ to sound confident and in charge, paying attention to your body language to give the desired impression.

Being responsible also means making instant decisions based on what’s going on in the classroom by shifting and changing your activities in a way, so that it is engaging for everyone in the classroom at certain intervals.

Believing

Well, this is substantial in improving the learning environment for students. If you don’t believe in them, they are not going to study. Students can feel your disappointment, unwillingness to enter their classroom, demotivation, etc. So, when they are acting out, it is quite possible that they are mirroring your disbelief towards them.

The best way to rectify this situation is to make sure you don’t underestimate your learners and give them the benefit of the doubt. If you are not coming up with new learning strategies and methods to help your students develop an interest in the subject area, they are not going to get there on their own.

What to do? Look for new ways of material development, tools to integrate into your learning, exercises to boost teamwork and critical thinking, etc. In a word, if you want the students to be engaged and present, you need to do it first.

Confidence

Students can feel fear. If you don’t show that you are confident and are in control of what’s happening in the classroom, they’ll use it to get round the session and do whatever they like. This refers not only to the confidence in your subject and the lesson plan, but also the actions you take to discipline the learners.

There are a lot of schools that don’t allow the teachers to take strict measures when trying to control the classroom like taking away student smartphones, sending them out of the session when required, etc. However, this has drastic consequences, as students stop perceiving the teachers as the figure of authority. They rather challenge them by bringing in the ‘fear’ of the school administration and hold it over the teachers’ heads.

With all due respect, making sure the teachers stay the most important figure of respect in the classroom is a must if we want to bring up better behaved generations.

Collaboration

Last but not the least, one can never achieve success on their own. If we want to support the learning process and get control of a ‘toxic’ classroom, we should put in a collaborative effort.

The only way to do this is to make sure that teachers, parents and the school administration are on the same page on school policies, learning pillars and classroom management strategies.

Another important thing is to involve the parents in the learning process of their kids when required, so that they feel as part of their educational success and the upbringing of a better human.

To sum this up, we can say that there are several things to put into consideration when working with school kids.

1. Never give up on them, they deserve the fight.
2. Develop as a teacher, be up-to-date with new learning methodologies and exercises.
3. Establish good classroom rules and follow them.
4. Make a team effort to get to the finish line successfully.

Let us know about your experience with ‘toxic’ learners and how you manage to get them involved.