Reshaping classroom culture a month into school?
It’s my first year teaching at a high-performing high school where students are quite involved and driven, and I teach five classes (4 sophomore AP World classes and 1 freshman early world history class). The culture in my classroom varies between classes - I’m doing well with my freshmen and one of my sophomore class, okay with another sophomore classes, borderline poorly with another, and quite poorly with my final sophomore class.
After a particularly rough week this week (lesson plans are all over the place and I’m exuding anxiety even though I’m smiling), the environment in my last sophomore class has broken down. Students are snickering about how bad of a teacher I am and one of my students continuously makes bratty comments toward me.
I don’t take this personally, but it needs to change - both the behavior and what I’m bringing to class. I’ve identified where my lesson plans are going wrong (they’re mostly too complicated and poorly explained) and am committed to being extra prepared for this section. I lack structure in my classroom. I also know I need to speak one on one with the student making the comments because I’ve let it go on far too long. Even with the next steps to take for myself, overall morale regarding my perceived competence in that class is quite low and I would like to fix it.
Any advice or steps to take to bounce back and create a positive classroom environment? Any feedback helps! I know I’m a first year, so this is par for the course, but in this one class, no one wants to be there and I would at least like to remove tension from the classroom.