Have you pulled him aside at another time (homeroom, study hall, etc) to speak with him outside of class? I find that sometimes that helps because you're just addressing one person and they don't have anyone else around to see they're being spoken to or to "impress". Let him know the expectation and what will happen if it isn't met.
I've also sent students to another room (a neighboring room) to get work done if they can't do it in my room. Usually if I ask someone to leave, it sends a message to the others.
the other suggestions were good, but I know at my school, there are no options you can't send kids to another room, and even when I have a 1 on 1 talk with the kid and feel that it goes well, the bad behavior continues when they get back into the classroom with their "audience"....how's your administration? can you set up a conference with family of the child to discuss all of this?
That's really rough. Do you have an administrator you can talk to personally after hours to drum up more than perfunctory support? I know my admin doesn't like to be called in too often, but *if I went to them with as long a list of interventions and said "LOOK. THIS is what I've done, it's not working, and you are about to lose ALL your 7th grade Resource kids this year because of this one bad apple"... they'd be On It.
If he's repeating, who were his teachers last year? Perhaps one of them has cracked the code of how to contact his family.
Does your school have a parent liaison? When I worked in public schools and had a hard time getting in touch with parents the liaison was usually able to make some inquiries nearby and find a way for me to contact the parent. On more than one occasion I had to go to the parent's workplace or home to actually speak to him or her.
At our school, it's considered a safety hazard not to have a working number for a child, and, if that student is also a discipline problem, we will RPC (required parent conference) them until a parent comes in physically and verifies a working phone number. I would bring this up with your admin if they fail to do something about his behavior in general. What happens if he gets into a serious altercation? Or has a serious allergic reaction to something or a high fever? We need to be able to contact parents for more reasons than just saying their kid was talking in class.
I'd also send a letter to the home address on file, registered mail if necessary. If that bounces back too, you've got a serious safety hazard.
Certified mail is a good idea. I might do that next week and see if that makes a difference. I really, really need a parent conference. Supposedly he had a hearing yesterday morning about some discipline issues but he was still in class in the afternoon and I don't think they can throw him in ISS without talking to the parent. This is just going to make him believe he can do anything without a consequence. :/
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I've also sent students to another room (a neighboring room) to get work done if they can't do it in my room. Usually if I ask someone to leave, it sends a message to the others.
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you can't send kids to another room, and even when I have a 1 on 1 talk with the kid and feel that it goes well, the bad behavior continues when they get back into the classroom with their "audience"....how's your administration? can you set up a conference with family of the child to discuss all of this?
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I have tried to contact the parents but there is absolutely no working phone number for home!
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If he's repeating, who were his teachers last year? Perhaps one of them has cracked the code of how to contact his family.
*EDIT: Sorry. Hella long week.
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I'd also send a letter to the home address on file, registered mail if necessary. If that bounces back too, you've got a serious safety hazard.
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