Last year I had a 6-7 year old combo class that was out of control unruly. I figured that this was due to their age and excitement, but it was manageable. This year most of the dancers in that class have moved up to the 8-9 year old class. This class is even more unruly than last year. There are 15 girls in this class and by the end of their hour class my voice is completely gone. We have instituted a behavior policy which is the following...

1st warning: Verbal warning
2nd warning: Sit out for five minutes
3rd warning: Out of class for the rest of the night

I spoke with the whole class and the parents about the behavior issues, but nothing is changing. It is getting to the point where they are being extremely disrespectful and they don't care if they are given any warning. I wish that it was one girl, but it is really about EIGHT of them. I'm at a loss as to what to do. I have pulled in my director, but we are both in the same place. I have been teaching for years and have never come across this. Do any of you have any suggestions of what has helped out in your classes?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Ugh... I feel your pain. I'm used to fairly well-behaved kids and kids that are interested in learning things. I'm teaching at a new place this year, and I have a large class of 6-8 yr olds that have gotten progressively worse since the beginning of the school year. It's gone from talking when they aren't supposed to, to downright rude and disruptive behavior. (One literally just jumped out of formation in the middle of learning choreography last week, did a lap around the room making a crazy noise, and then went back to her spot?? They were having standardizing testing last week so I'm hoping it was because of stress from that - but seriously... in all my years of teaching, I have NEVER had that happen, except maybe similar things in a 2-3 yr old class. Oddest thing ever.)

I make sure we move between things every 15-20 minutes, but that doesn't seem to be enough for this class... so I've already added in barre stretches (it's a jazz class) to add an extra station, and I think this week if I get any similar attitudes we'll probably just go ahead and do some strength training. (Sit ups, push ups, leg lifts & holds, etc.) Which I don't usually do with younger ones... but if they aren't going to pay attention and do the dance moves I need them to do - I might as well have them strengthening up.

You're lucky you're able to ask them to leave, I'm not comfortable enough at this new place to take major disciplinary actions like that. They don't have any policies in place and I don't think the atmosphere would condone it. So at least you have that on your side. Oh, and my class is about the same size and the amount of disruptive kids are about the same... it's split about half are attentive and go through each of our activities seamlessly, while the other half degrades fairly quickly... I hate to punish the "good" half, but I'm not willing to let this one class stress me out much longer...

Is it possible to have some (little bit) older kids (well behaved, motivated) to join this class for a few times? (4-8 times, I think) Tell them in advance these girls don't know how to behave and that you want them there to set a new standard (they will be SOOO proud!).

If you can do that, it changes the balance in this class. Suddenly the 8 disruptive girls are not the majority anymore. They feel 'minor' and that could temper them for a start.
During class you can concentrate on those working well, give them compliments and let them show what they already can. Just ignore bad behaviour from the others, it's only trying to get attention. When it becomes disturbing, you just let them sit but without any 'interest' from you when doing that. You keep focused on the hard working girls.

I think that all kids in the end want positive attention. Only when they don't get that, they will accept negative attention as an alternative to no attention at all. When the 'bad' girls see you do give positive attention to those who work hard, and no attention to them, that could hit them in the face/wake them up.

Also, when one of the added girls could say to one of the disturbing girls: "Sssst, I can't hear what Miss is saying" or "Why don't you behave yourself a bit more?", that would be a huge bonus!

Thanks for the input! I will let you all know how tonight goes...

It is a good idea to give all of your attention to anyone good in the class, all of the time. IF any of the bad kids do something good, then, and only then, give them attention via a compliment.

Kids will do whatever it takes to get your attention and they are getting it.

If it continues, third time is a charm, and they are out of class, at that very moment. Just like time out, walk over to them, say, "come with me", walk them to the door, open it, say, "you are done for today", and close the door. When mother comes, tell her she had to be removed from class for disruptive behavior and you will call her later to set up a meeting with both of them but in the meantime you would like her to talk to her daughter about wasting her money and your time.

I skip the warning with really bad behavior. I set my behavior expectations at the beginning of class before we do anything. I tell them THIS is their warning. Any monkey business, they are done for the day. Especially at that age they know what is ok and not ok. Then a bunch will either forget or try to test you and see if you really mean it. I wouldn't be surprised if half the class or more ended up being kicked out.

It also sounds like you have major ADHD kids. Perhaps part of your beginning of the class routine involves some of that strength training. Get all the willies out before the seriousness starts. Kind of like when I rode horses. Those that were highly energetic got lunged for a while before I actually got on them. Just make them move move move non-stop for the first 5 to 10 minutes. Make them hot and sweaty and expel that energy!

I spent about 10 minutes sitting, with my arms folded staring at the clock while my class (10yr-12yr) screwed around. Eventually, about 3 minutes in one girl noticed my super pissed off expression and body language and nudged her friend who glanced back and they quickly found their place and stood in 1st position and waited. They then got another girl's attention and slowly, over ten minutes the room went quiet and still. I then had them all sit down in their right split and explained that since it took us 10 minutes to get quiet, we would spend ten full minutes stretching their right and left split. If I heard talking, saw anyone fall over, make noise, cough or if I could even hear them breathing I'd add 30 seconds to each split. A few seconds into the stretch one girl dramatically falls over. "30 seconds added." Another girl sighed. "That's another 30 seconds." So we held our right split quietly for 6 minutes on the right and 6 minutes on the left and then we sat in our straddle. After 3 minutes I allowed the first girls who stopped talking to get up and go get water and then stretch (without talking unless they wanted to join us again) on their own in the back. It took a full 30 minutes of the class from my initial clock watching to the end of the stretching, but let me tell you they never did that again.

A 6-8yr ballet class was giving me major attitude and weren't trying or even half-heartedly attempting barre. So I gave them their full 30 minute barre routine and then after grand battements, they were excited to go center. I explained that since they had spent the first 30 minutes talking and messing around and not paying attention, we were going to barre all over again starting with plies. I then explained that if I didn't see the entire class giving me 100% we'd repeat the combination until I saw everyone doing it. We did plies right and left three full times. The rest of the combinations went a bit quicker when they saw that they could either spend thirty minutes doing plies or they could try to have some energy and we'd be done. All I had to do after that was threaten to repeat barre again if they were talking and they quickly shut-up.

My 5 year old class was giving me all kinds of crap so we stood in first position with out hands on our hips for 2 minutes to start and I saw anyone move, either their feet, their hands their head, anything - if I heard any sound I was adding 10 seconds to the time. 5 minutes later we were able to move again.

With older classes who are being snotty I had them caterpillars up and down the floor. They stand in a standing pike and then walk their hands out to a full pushup position and then walk their feet back in the the pike. All the way across the floor. One class in particular gained a lot of upper body strength that year.

I generally try not to make punishments too severe but in the cases where the students have 0 respect then I have 0 problem in teaching them that if they don't want to me respect my position as a teacher that's fine, however they'll be sore tomorrow because of it.

I love it, Sumayah!! Torture works!! LOL

YES!!! Sumayah! I love it. My kids hate stretching in their splits, this will be perfect. I have a few classes (well most kids) are completely disrespectful. "Kids these days." I swear I really don't know why kids are so lazy, disrespectful, mouthy, careless.....

Sumayah I love it! Those are so helpful for ideas to keep in my back pocket. Thanks for the ideas. I had some but those are good ones to add to it.