A Call for Advice

For several years, my last period class has been my worst behaved.  I've always boiled it down to, "it's the last class of the day and they're tired."  Also, "it's my last class of the day and I'm tired."  I know that my last period class gets away with murder compared to my earlier classes.  I feel like I say the same things all day to get students back on track that by the last class, I already feel defeated and like my students are not going to listen to me.  I forget that those are not the same students I saw earlier in the day who I've already told to change their behavior.  I know that by the end of the day, I am tired and sometimes frustrated just like my students.  Instead of getting stricter, I get more lenient when I'm frustrated.

I recognize all these things in myself, but I don't know how to change.  My classroom management has improved since I started teaching, but I've still got so far to go.

I recently covered a class period for two teachers on a day that we didn't have enough subs.  The first was a sixth grade computer class.  That class ran itself.  I was so impressed.  Every student came in and sat in their assigned seat.  Every student wrote the homework in their agenda book before I even prompted them to do so, and one student had the job of stamping everyone's agenda book when the homework was written down.  After their typing practice, we read an article together and the students were to answer the questions independently; and there wasn't a single student who tried to get away with working with someone during that time.

The second class I covered was for the social studies teacher on my team.  This experience puzzled me the most.  I was covering a class full of my own eighth graders.  They all sat in their assigned seats without complaint.  They did all the work expected of them during class and were SILENT during the guided reading activity that they were completing.  I had to prompt some students to keep working and I did take a phone away that period, but for the most part, the kids were fantastic.  At the end of that period, many of the students in that class followed me down to my room for math.  And it was like they were completely different people.  They had a warm-up to do that was projected on the board the same as every other day, and yet the students came in and wandered around the room talking to their friends, ignoring the work that they'd been expected to do every day at the start of class since the first day of school.

I need better procedures.  Or maybe just a better way to enforce them.  The number one piece of advice I got from my students at the end of last year was to "stop being so nice, especially to the bad kids."  I'm not trying to be nice.  I'm not trying to get kids to like me.  I am trying to be patient and understanding, but at times I take it too far and at the expense of other students' learning.  And that's not fair to anyone.

I'm looking for advice - mostly proactive, but also some reactive.  What can I do to make my class run more smoothly and to better convey my expectations to my students so that I don't end up with so many discipline problems?  But also, how do I regain control of my class when behaviors have gotten out of hand?  Even something as minor as how to get the attention of the class when they have gotten too loud during an activity.  I'm not supposed to yell and I'm not supposed to flick the lights; ideally we'd never get to that point, but what can I do when they do get too loud, and I just need to get their attention to remind them of the noise level they should be working at?

I know what works for one teacher may not always work for another, but any and all advice would be appreciated!  I'm open to trying just about anything, because I know that I haven't yet found what works for me.