If you’ve taught high school for more than five minutes, you already know this truth: disruptive behavior doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There’s almost always a story behind it — frustration, insecurity, attention-seeking, boredom, trauma, or a student who doesn’t believe school is a place where they belong. While consequences matter, relationships matter first. Over the years, I’ve learned that how you handle disruptive students can either escalate the problem or completely change the trajectory of that student in your class.
Here are the strategies that have made the biggest difference for me, especially with students who test boundaries early and often.
Get to Know Students Before the Behaviors Begin
One of the most powerful classroom management tools isn’t a seating chart or a discipline referral — it’s relationship-building on the front end.
When you take time early in the semester to learn students’ names, interests, strengths, and frustrations, you’re laying groundwork that pays off later. When a student who knows you care about them gets into trouble, the conversation is completely different. Instead of “This teacher is just out to get me,” it becomes “I messed up with someone who actually knows me.”
That relationship doesn’t excuse poor behavior, but it opens the door to accountability without hostility.
Simple ways to do this include interest surveys the first week, casual conversations during bell work, noticing small wins, and greeting students at the door. You’re building trust before you need it.
Check out this blog post to learn more about building relationships >> What is the #1 Thing Any Teacher Needs to Know
Take the Conversation to the Hallway
Correcting a student in front of their peers often fuels the behavior instead of stopping it. Taking them into the hallway removes the audience and creates a one-on-one moment where students are far more likely to open up.
In the hallway, you’re no longer performing classroom control — you’re having a human conversation. Many students will admit they’re overwhelmed, frustrated, tired, or dealing with something outside of school. Even when they don’t open up, the private setting de-escalates the situation and allows you to address the behavior calmly and clearly.
Be Consistent With Consequences
High school students can handle rules. What they struggle with is inconsistency.
If one student gets repeated warnings while another receives a write-up for the same behavior, students notice. Once they perceive unfairness, behavior problems multiply. Consistency communicates that expectations are real, boundaries are stable, and consequences are not personal.
This doesn’t mean there’s no room for grace. It means your decision-making process is predictable, and predictability creates a sense of safety in the classroom.
Contact Home Before Writing Them Up
Reaching out to parents before a formal write-up can change everything. It brings another adult into the situation early and shows the student that school and home are communicating.
Most parents want to help, especially when the conversation is framed around supporting their child rather than punishing them. Often, behavior improves simply because the student realizes the adults in their life are aligned.
Separate the Student From the Behavior
Language matters. Saying “You’re being disrespectful” labels the student. Saying “That behavior isn’t acceptable in this classroom” addresses the issue without attacking their identity.
Students are far more likely to correct behavior when they don’t feel defined by their mistakes.
Use Proximity and Non-Verbal Cues
Sometimes the quietest correction is the most effective. Standing near a student, making eye contact, or placing a hand on a desk can redirect behavior without stopping instruction or embarrassing anyone. These small actions often prevent bigger disruptions before they start.
Give Students a Way to Save Face
High school students are highly aware of peer perception. Offering choices allows them to correct behavior without feeling publicly defeated.
Saying something like, “You can refocus and stay, or you can step out for a minute and come back ready,” gives students ownership while preserving dignity.
Teach and Reinforce Expectations Explicitly
Never assume students automatically know what appropriate behavior looks like. Model what respectful discussion sounds like, how group work should function, and what smooth transitions look like.
Revisit expectations often, especially after long breaks or schedule changes. Clear expectations reduce misbehavior because students know exactly where the line is.
Remember That Regulation Comes Before Instruction
A dysregulated student cannot learn. Sometimes the goal isn’t to finish the lesson but to help a student calm down enough to re-enter the learning space.
This might mean a short break, a reset conversation, or a moment to breathe. That investment often saves hours of disruption later.
Take It Outside the Classroom and Pray for Your Students
Some of the most important work we do as teachers happens outside the classroom, long after the bell rings. There are students whose behavior weighs heavy on your heart — the ones who act out, shut down, or seem perpetually angry. For me, one of the most grounding and impactful strategies has been praying for those students.
Praying doesn’t replace boundaries or consequences, but it changes my posture toward them. It softens frustration, restores compassion, and reminds me that I may be seeing only a small piece of what they’re carrying. When I pray for a student, I’m asking God to work in ways I can’t — in their heart, their home, their circumstances, and even in my own responses.
This practice helps me walk back into the classroom with patience instead of resentment and empathy instead of irritation. It also reminds me that teaching isn’t just about managing behavior; it’s about shepherding young people who are still figuring out who they are and where they belong.
Sometimes the behavior doesn’t change immediately — but I do. And that shift often makes all the difference.
Read this blog to learn more about praying for your students and the impact it has >> The Powerful Impact of Prayer: Pray for your Students
Final Thoughts on Strategies for Disruptive Students
Handling disruptive students in high school isn’t about being the strictest teacher in the building. It’s about being steady, consistent, and relational.
When students know you see them, care about them, and will hold them accountable fairly, behavior shifts. Not overnight. Not perfectly. But meaningfully.
Sometimes, the student who challenges you the most ends up being the one who needed you the most.
Let’s Learn From Each Other
Classroom management isn’t one-size-fits-all, and no teacher has this completely figured out. What works in one classroom may flop in another — and that’s okay.
I’d love to hear from you. What strategies have you tried with disruptive students that are in high school? What worked? What didn’t? What surprised you?
Leave a comment below and share your experience. Your insight might be exactly what another teacher needs to read today. We’re better teachers when we learn from each other — and when we remember we’re not doing this work alone.
