You don’t need to apologize. I didn’t think you were snippy. I do want and desperately need all the advice I can get. I’m struggling right now and I’m mad and disappointed at myself for failing at this.

Hey Mrs. Frazzled, I went back and reread my post to you and thought I sounded a little snippy. I apologize for that. The last thing you need right now is feeling like others are piling on or like you’re being judged. It’s a tough enough job as it is.

Teabreak, I honestly don’t know how you love 9th graders. I hate them. If I could, I’d quit my job right now. I’ve enjoyed teaching 10th grade and up the past 3 years and was looking forward to the same this year. And now I dread going to work. The immaturity is killing me. I don’t relate to these kids at all. I’m not a bubbly person and I’m not really the type that jokes with students. I’m not an entertainer so I dont act like one.

I don’t know how I will make it through the semester much less the year.

Good to see you have structured entering the room; an attribute of effective management. Consider besides review adding conundrums, Plexers, etc. - anything to get minds going but easy on you. I had a "carrot" problem - silly conundrum. If they got it correct they won a carrot (I taped a carrot to the board above the problem for effect). Point being some students may not hustle to seat because they associate review with work, a four-letter word. If you can come up with an incentive to answer question, "Why should I?", for immature types you won't have to react with tardies.

Tea break, thanks. I will take you advice into consideration. I have thought about trying to get them to work for a reward such as free time.

Apple Annie, I’m supposed to be in the hall between class changes which makes this all the more difficult. I’m at a busy intersection in front of a bathroom where fights are know to happen so I need to be outside watching the halls. I’ve been standing halfway in the doorway that way I can watch them in my class and those in the hall. I marked students out of their seat when the bell rang today and I gave them fair warning.

How they enter the room is crucial to set the tone for the rest of the class. You said what they are expected to do when they enter, but that's just part of it. The rest of the question is, what do YOU do? In other words, how do they KNOW you really EXPECT them to do this?

I love working with 9th graders. I may be weird, but I think they are amazing! I am going on nearly 15 years of working with them.

They are to come in, go to their seat, and get started on the daily bellringer. They have a bellringer everyday. It’s just a few questions to review what we covered the day before.

Most will do all that, but some do not. I’ll admit that I need to be more real with the consequences when they don’t. I am marking them tardy if they are out of their seat when the tardy bell rings. When they get 6 tardies, we can write them up.

What is your procedure for students entering the room?

They are disruptive the whole block. I can’t get them to quiet down for more than a few minutes at a time. I am constantly walking around. If I am helping one student and turn my back for 30 seconds, students on the other side of the classroom are off task. Then I walk over there to get those on task and the other side of the room is off task.

Also, they either hate each other or they are best friends.
This week I made them all change seats so that they sat boy girl boy girl and that didn’t really seem to help. I tried to move the problem people away from each other and then others became problems.

It’s a nightmare.

At what times and what activities do disruptions seem to be most frequent? For example, how about entering the room? How about during guided practice when students are working and you are available to help? What about transitions? Also, what are you doing during these times?

Here are some YouTube videos:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pgk-719mTxM


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RTnZy3jDDx0


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=geLvLd3uosk&t=1656s

Check them out. Real life ninth graders with their teacher in the first week of school.

They seem so immature compared to the other HS grades. I didn’t have any last year, but I’ll have a couple of classes of them again this year.

Basically they need to grow up, so anything you can do to help that along is good. Are there any class privileges you can think of that you would normally give the upperclassmen that maybe you could use as incentive for more mature behavior? My mind is blanking now but as a small example mature students can take the restroom pass whenever they need to without asking. Maybe having a few quick class discussions about not acting like they are still in middle school, having them write down an immature behavior that they would each like to work on changing and then checking their progress, or even having a class-wide incentive like a few minutes of free time at the end of the period or a game on Friday...

But I would definitely advise you to make a few phone calls to parents. Choose 3-4 who are ringleaders (at least one boy and one girl if you can) and get the parents on their side. I wouldn’t say that kids that age are usually scared of their parents, but they know they hold the purse strings and also have the ability to stop them from socializing. Word should get out pretty quickly that you’re calling home.

I was completely blind sided this year. I’ve taught two different science classes the past 3 years and thought I was going to be teaching them again. I asked to pick up another science class since we had a teacher retiring and I really wanted to teach it.

Well I am teaching that new science subject and another new one. (I found this out 4 days before students started back) I’m not teaching any science that I’ve taught the past 3 years that I worked so hard to build the curriculum for, but I will digress.

So now I’m teaching 9th grade for the first time ever. I hate it. If I had taught them my first year, I’m certain that I would no longer be teaching. I have a class of 28 that is driving me insane. They are so disruptive and immature. Over half the class tries to be the class clown. They ask stupid questions just to be funny. I can barely get through a lesson.

I’ll admit that my weakest point is classroom management. I know I need to improve in this area. I’m losing my mind. I don’t want to just yell or be outright mean but I have to do something. I’m going to try giving break detention and maybe calling parents.

I’ve heard that you have to be “firm but nice” but what does that even mean? I’ve tried being nice. I’ve tried reasoning with them and it has gotten me no where.

I thought since they were coming from the middle school and being thrown in with the bigger kids that they might start out kind of timid but oh no! They fear nothing.

I’m asking for any advice.