Round 2 and I'm starting to get a little respect!!!

So my original question to my study was, "how to facilitate effective learning in the classroom", but after my couple of weeks of teaching I realized that with the demographic of students I am teaching and the level of evilness in their souls, I do not think that this would be an appropriate study for me to do.  However, I have modified my question from our last class to, "How do I develop my classroom management so that it will support the different demographic of students?"  This seems much more fitting for my current situation then before.  Rumor had it that West Salem High School "allegedly" was supposed to be a middle to upper class school lacking diversity amongst their students, however, I would like to beg to differ.  In the 2 classes of pre-algebra that I am teaching I have 28 IEP , 3 EGC, 6 with parole officers, and another 6 that you will see on America's Most Wanted in a few more years.  Thus over half my time is spent on classroom management and although this challenge is a good time, this last week was the first week that I have started to see a break in the clouds. 
One question that I focused on this last 2 weeks was how can I gain the trust and respect of my students to help my C.M.?   So, 2 weeks ago after I finished my joyous 5th period, I went to the LRC and EGC rooms and spoke with the teachers about their individual students that I have in my classroom and what I can do to help them.  At the same time, I was asking them for some help to talk to their students about letting off their full court press about being jerks.   This was a very valuable because I learned a lot about each one of my kids and found out information that is not in their files.  Some of my students have abandonment issues, bad home lives, etc.  For these students I am making an effort to show them that I am here for them, I am not going anywhere, but at the same time I am still holding them to a standard that they need to meet.  I have been working with their case workers with their homework and the students have been responding well with this because they can see that I care and I am making the effort for them.  Last Thursday, I had to tell my students about 10 times in a 30 min lesson to be quite so I could talk so I used that as a teachable moment and had a heart to heart with them about how I can get them to be quite when I am talking.  I pretty much laid all my cards on the table and told them what it was like teaching, what my role of a teacher was, how horrible their experience in the class could be if this doesn't change, and what I can do to help them.  It turned out to be a great talk and although they just told me to tell them to be quite or shut up, I think what came out of it more was the amount of respect and care I have for them.  The last thing I did was this Friday, I gave them an exit slip to fill out after their test about how the class was going, how the layout of the class was, how my teaching is, etc.  They surprisingly responded that they all liked my class and I am doing a great job.  One question I wanted to know was did they like the worksheets I was giving them and if they wanted some other type of lesson.  To get my legs under me, get a better handle of class, and plenty of practice on problems I have been creating worksheets everyday.  Although all the students said they liked that and a couple suggested I do a few math games, the one question I am going to focus on for the next 2 weeks is how can different classroom activities support my classroom management?  Within the next couple of weeks I am going to do some book work and a search and rescue game that will get them out  of  their seats.  The intent is to get them engaged which in turn will help my classroom management so until then....

Hello All...

Well I have read all your posts and needless to say that we have all had an interesting week of teaching, however, I think I may take the prize for the most interesting.   I am teaching at West Salem H.S. where I get to teach one Algebra ESOL class and two foundations (pre-algebra) classes.   My main question for my project is how to facilitate effective collaborative learning in the classroom.  One aspect of my question that I am researching is how do I develop classroom management that will support collaborative learning?  MY OH MY, that is the million dollar question because right now I am just trying to figure out classroom management that will work for the different dynamics I have in my classes.

I have block scheduling so I get to spend 90 minutes with each class and after day one it was interesting to see the demographics I have in my classroom.  I have 11 students in my ESOL math class and one IA who is a hispanic woman who has been around for a while, young, the kids love her, obviously fluent in Spanish, and she is AMAZING.  Surprisingly, this is my best class and this is probably because of the size of class and how much attention I can give each student.  However, the twist to this class is I have a wide range of fluency in this class from fresh in from Mexico and doesn't speak a word of English or understands it to completely fluent.  I do not even know where to start with my other two periods.  To try and paint a picture for you, each class has 27 students, pre-algebra is the lowest level of math at the school and I have freshman through seniors in there so you can figure out the upper classmans attitudes.  Majority of the students are all on IEP's and in one class alone I have 6 students with parole officers they have to check in with.  Wednesday I had to give out 2 referrals because a couple of my students decided that listening to an IPOD was more important then math and getting a referral was a better choice then putting it away and the other student decided to take a 30 minute bathroom break in which he never returned to class. 
Although I find it a good time and amusing my students are testing me to see what they are getting away with, I will have to say that I have not been able to really see how my classroom management will help my collaborative ideas because I am still trying to figure out the appropriate classroom management for each class. 

Hopefully by next week I will have a better idea and be able to be a little more informative, but my 5th period might give me a heart attack by the end of the year!!!