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Middle school students are challenging to teach for even the most experience educators. A mistake teachers make is in viewing student behavior in terms of what the kids are doing without thinking about what the teacher is doing in the classroom.

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It's easy to get frustrated when students refuse to do their work, are disrespectful, or disobedient. A teacher's first response may be to engage the student in a confrontation but they have now given the student an audience for their behavior. Calling a student out in front of their peers creates a power struggle that could damage the teacher's credibility.

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Problem behavior should be confronted with a private conversation. Eliminate the audience by speaking with the student individually, either at your desk or in the hallway. The teacher will have the opportunity to discuss the behavior and seek solutions without the social variables of the classroom.

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Yelling at students causes students to flinch and cower or to fight back in the short term but to lose respect for the teacher in the long-term. Using sarcasm breeds antipathy and has a negative affect for the class and the teacher. Both yelling and sarcasm come from a teacher who is having an emotional response to a perceived challenge.

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Have "emotional objectivity" which is the ability to carry out behavioral management tasks in a rational manner instead of in an emotional way. Teachers need to respond to student behavior with calm firmness by first controlling their own emotions and reactions.

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Teachers can avoid a lot of confrontational behaviors by being an active participant in their own classroom. Sitting behind a desk lecturing middle school students and yelling at them across the room provides more opportunity for disruption and confrontation.

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The teacher should be moving among their students throughout the class period trying to come in close proximity with every student frequently. Adolescents especially need this external cue to help them regulated their behavior. At this age, their brains are in a developmental stage that may inhibit self-regulation.

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Classroom routines make behavior more predictable and limit opportunities for students to become off task. Middle school students are chaotic by default.

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Routines are the foundation for a well-managed middle school classroom. Establish expectations for how the class will begin and end and how they will transition from one activity to another. A highly effective classroom manager carefully plans specific management tasks for every minutes from start to finish.

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Dreikurs and Cassel (1972) describe "attention getting" as a primary motivation for behavior. Students actively seek attention by any means, positive or negative. They thirst for for opportunities to interact with their peers.

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If the best way to convey information is with a lecture, break the presentation down into manageable segments not more than 5 minutes. Allow students to write and interact with their peers perhaps for discussion of the topic or note taking. Teachers must be aware of the limits of their student's attention capacity and distribute the time talking with interactive or reflective breaks in between.

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1. Be ready to react to unpredictable students.

2. Think ahead for where you would have a private conversation with student who is being disruptive.

3. Arrange the classroom with teacher mobility in mind.

4. Arrange the classroom so that the teacher is always at the center for presentations.

5. Create routines for beginning class, ending class, and transitioning between activities.

6. Address students immediately when bell rings giving them a central focus instead of allowing them to set their own agenda.

7. End every class with a teacher-directed closure.

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Effective management of student behavior requires the teacher to be highly prepared through planning and also deeply reflective and genuinely self-critical.