Disregard the fact that I left formal classroom teaching four years ago, I still wake up some nights in a panic about an out-of-control classroom of swarming junior high students who are blabbering away incessantly. While I have fifteen years of junior high experience behind me and most often I had wonderfully well-behaved students, I still have that recurring nightmare of students who are off-task, disengaged, and not listening.

If this in any way reflects the feelings haunting you as the holiday vacation draws to a close, knowing that returning to your classroom is eminent, it is time to solve this terror of naughty students and to make sure that it never rears its head again in the reality of your classroom again.

First you must accept that students who are not paying attention signal your lack of attention to the details of classroom management far more than it does students who do not want to learn. As you re-enter a classroom in January, you must equip yourself with the management tools that will guarantee classroom success. My recommendations for you include:

1. Establishing a signal for attention and silence. This may be raising your hand and then having students follow the gesture until all students are silent. You must wait until all attention is on you before proceeding with instructions or lecture. You can also raise your hand with 5 fingers in the air and then counting down to one with the expectation of silent attention when you finish counting. Echo claps also draw students in - you clap twice, students clap twice in return, and the class waits quietly for the next information and instruction. Whatever signal you choose, practice it, practice it, practice it. If your students have been unruly, you will need to explain carefully how this has disrupted learning and how you plan to change that. Then practice and enforce the new procedure.

2. Outlining what will happen if students do not comply with the quiet signal. This will take patience if your students have been completely out of control. The essential is that you decide what to do (as in require silent attention) and then follow through. To me the best action is assertive discipline, especially with elementary to junior high age students. You have given everyone the warning when you explained your expectations for paying attention, your next step after an infraction is to put the name of the student who does not comply on the board. If you must speak to the student again during the class period, now you have to take action - miss recess, come in at lunch, stay after school. You must determine what will best work to convince students to behave. All students have something they love that they do not want to have taken away, that is often your key to getting them to follow your rules.

3. Creating something for students to do when they come in. The extra time with you must serve two purposes. One, time spent because of the infraction, and two, something educational such as a worksheet or activity that ties to learning to complete. The work needs to be interesting but not fun (you do not want students in every day!).

4. Doubling the time for a repeated infraction, again doubling the work to be completed.

5. Calling home if behavior does not change. I know this call home can be a nightmare, but students need to know you are serious when it comes to classroom behavior and sometimes soliciting help from parents works.

With older students, it can be tougher to enforce your new rules. That is why you must be completely committed to changing the behavior. You cannot back down no matter how hard they plead. If you say come in at lunch, you have to mean it and you have to know what you will do if they do not come in. most often with older students, it is how you begin your class that sets the tone for everything else. Making sure that students are seated before the bell rings with instruction starting on the bell sound eliminates problems. If you class starts off with total student disengagement, that is where you must begin your new discipline procedures. Changing poor behavior mid-year is not easy, but neither is letting it persist.

The name on the board is critical to your plan of action primarily as a reminder of who is supposed to come in to spend "Learning Time" with you. With several classes and two hundred students, it gets hard to remember. The designated area to place student names needs to be handy for you and not handy for students to erase their names.

Dedicate yourself to behavioral change and it will happen. You may need to call for help from co-workers or administrators. This is not a sign of failure (unless you have completely given up) but a request for support. Students who behave are delightful to teach, students who misbehave may drive you out of the profession.

Educational consultant; free lance writer; http://www.energizedlearning.net