I had one class 3 years ago that I will never forget. It reminded me of a chaotic high school class. Almost every student was disruptive....constant talking during class, asking questions over material I had lectured on 10 minutes earlier, not paying attention during class. Now that I have more experience, this is how I should have handled the situation.
After the first day, I should have used a seating chart based on my perspective....and I will change the seating arrangement at any time. Even though I explained the syllabus on the first day, I should have emphasized the consequences of not participating or for causing a disruption. As problems arose, I should have called each student in for a conference with myself and the department director. The situation got so bad at one point, we had a security officer on campus and one student had gotten a court injunction against another student. One student had their car spray painted and another student had an "incident" at their home. My administration did not want to get accused of discrimination and did not take decisive action. It definitely was a "learning " experience for me. I will never let a situation proceed without my taking pre-determined steps to augment change and I will demand administration take necessary steps to remedy any difficult students. Documentation is necessary at every step and these steps need to be explained to students and the consequences if not followed.
