First, to state the obvious, don't ever be sarcastic or condescending. Kids do really dumb stuff sometimes and it's easy to get frustrated and use the wrong tone when addressing them. I say this because this was a bit of a struggle for me when I used to teach middle school.

Don't feel that relaxing your standards and expectations will make kids respect you more. In fact, that will more than likely have the opposite effect. Kids want structure and guidance (even if they claim they don't)

And I think the most important thing is that you have to show kids that you genuinely care about them. If you show an interest in them and in their lives, then when it's time to sit them down and be firm about their behavior or whatever it is that you need to be firm about, they'll trust more that it's coming more from a place of genuine concern over their wellbeing vs you're just being mean and picking on them.


There's always going to be rotten apples and bad attitudes though and you might not always be able to win them all. If you're new to a school, then it makes perfect sense why you would be receiving push back. Keep your expectations high though and over time you'll see a change in attitude. It's definitely going to take time though (and it might depend on certain students leaving your program).