This isn’t Saving Private Ryan; you can’t just crawl into a foxhole and scream for a medic when things go bad.
It’s Friday, last period. You’re tired. The students are tired. Even the projector is tired. Then it happens - the vibe shifts. A rebel student defies your instruction, or a call for silence goes unheeded. You realise quickly that control has gone, and now the majority are off-task and chatting. Too many to target one student.
Crap!
What do you do?
First of all, do not worry. This doesn’t make you a bad teacher. I am a firm believer that as soon as you introduce more than 4 challenging students into a classroom, then the best teacher in the world with a prison warden roaming the desks couldn’t guarantee total compliance. It happens. And frankly, we are all human. Sometimes, in the circus that is the classroom, we are juggling too many flaming pins to notice the banana peel we just slipped on until we are already on the floor and crying into our clown make-up.
I have been in this situation before. I will be again. Any teacher who has worked outside an outstanding school has. Many in outstanding schools probably have too.
In my very first year of teaching, I had my Teach First mentor walk in to a full-on mutiny, as my GCSE class had decided that this afternoon History assessment was one mock too many. I had it several years later when two out of control students broke the lock to a store room and began throwing all sorts of items, from a globe, to a football, to a full kettle (thankfully not boiled!).
It has happened several of times since then. I am not after all, the best teacher in the world, and I do not have a prison warden roaming my desks. It’s a result of the context of schools I most enjoy teaching in – the most challenging students in the most deprived areas.
So, what to do? Great question. Before you give up and flee your classroom castle, instead pause, regroup, warm up your teacher’s voice, and counter-attack.
Step 1: Collect your emotions
It can be really difficult in the moment when everything has gone wrong. You might want to cry, or scream. Your face might go bright red with anger or disappointment. You cannot really control your emotion. It's understandable. Your castle has fallen. Your realm is overrun.
But you can control your response. There is no reason to give up, you are dealing with students. They are still developing humans, not fully mature adults. In any situation, you must act as the adult in the room; the role model. Remember that, and do not let yourself just explode and take it out on the students. No matter how much you think they might deserve it.
Step 2: Identify if there is any danger, or if there is one student that needs immediately handling
I have a general rule of thumb in that the only time it is acceptable to shout at students is if there is a danger to safety, be that a fire, or a fight. If something within that realm is happening, then immediately tackle the serious problem; minor disruptions will have to wait.
Just to really clarify, I do not mean shout abuse at a student (obviously!), but instead this is the time to give immediate ‘shut up and do what I say immediately’ sort of instructions. “Put that chair down this instant” or “get away from the burning desk”. You get the idea.
Handle that immediate threat firmly and decisively. Chatter and lost-learning time comes second to genuine danger. Use your behaviour policy to its fullest extreme if something serious is happening that has caused you to lose control. Safety of your students must take priority.
But, what if there isn’t danger. Instead, what if one person is stopping the learning for all?
The principle, dear reader, remains the same, only without a raised voice.
If the whole class isn’t able to listen or follow instructions, because someone (or a couple of people) has caused the class to descend to chaos, then take the time to specifically handle them first.
Last year, I had a class that had two students who were intent on literally shouting over anything anyone said as some sort of game, often by calling me or another student a choice collection of slurs. For the several months it took for wider student support to help support their out of classroom needs (they really weren’t exploding in lessons for no reason; students rarely do), I was forced to pause everything I was doing. I would then use the behaviour policy to calmly, but persistently, to handle their disruptions. As tough as it could be, I kept my tone neutral, my instructions and warnings clear, and after they were removed, I always reached back out to explain how every lesson is a fresh start.
Once that immediate danger is dealt with, then you are in a position to reclaim your class.
Step 3: Ready yourself for the take-back
A regrouping knight always knows where they need to go before pushing back. Follow their lead. In every classroom, there is that one position you should go to whenever giving whole class instructions. Find it, and go to it. Ideally a place where you can see everybody. Typically, I try and make mine at the front corner – somewhere I can see everyone, but also crabwalk sideways around the class so I can move around and work with individual students afterwards without turning my back on anybody.
Several students might immediately spot you in the position and shift their thinking to ‘we are about to have an instruction’ mode. Try and make it decisive, but unfazed. I have found it successful in the past to pre-warn students by saying something along the lines of “okay, okay, let’s get ourselves refocused now, since we’ve gotten distracted” before beginning my re-entry into teacher mode.
Even if they don’t refocus immediately, by sticking to your routines and typical practice, it can give the student – and yourself – the idea that you aren’t perturbed by this action. Students, even misbehaving ones, deserve to feel safe and in capable hands. Show them that they are.
This moment is also the time to make sure you know what you are going to say or do once you get the class back into a learning mindset. Where were you in the lesson? Do you need a quick knowledge check like a true or false? What is your monologue going to be?
Step 4: Calm, clear, concise
Now to reclaim control. The trick? There is no trick. It’s the same old teaching strategies. But with a bit more deliberate action and speech. And I will let it take as long as it needs. Never, never, never, try to teach over talking students.
So, what does it look like?
Well, for me. I stand tall, and raise my arm into the air. Three fingers held high.
“Alright class, I need 100%, everyone, silent in three.” I say it slowly, and slightly louder than I might normally, depending on the noise of the class.
I then positively narrate.
“Fantastic, this table are all silent”. “Thank you *Student number 32*, you stopped talking immediately”.
If that doesn’t work, I target one of the typically ‘challenging’ students and praise them for the smallest level of compliance.
“Good to see that *troublemaker no. 7* was about to start talking again but caught himself, and is now looking at me without talking”. Often, doing things like that will steer the student into actually complying, as you haven’t actually told them off.”
If that still doesn’t work, I will then move on to the stern, uncompromising version of my teaching persona.
“I said 100% class. That means everybody. I said silent. That means no noise at all, and stop talking immediately. I said in three. That means it is the first of three, simple instructions to follow.”
If they still talk? Then the behaviour policy becomes my cudgel.
Only when everybody is silent will I move on. I drop one of my raised fingers.
“Everything out of our hands in two.”
Again, I repeat the process of positive narration. A second finger drops (please make sure it is not the middle finger left raised!)
“And finally, all eyes facing forward in one”.
And finally, I repeat the positive narration again.
And then I move on, as if the disturbance never happened. The students don’t need to know your hands might be shaking. Don’t address a red face, or shortness of breath. If there are tears in your eyes, then wipe them away and continue with a smile of appreciation for those who got it right.
And breathe. Always breathe.
You've got this.