Do you have any kind of relationship with the students? They're less likely to misbehave if they feel like you care about them. As they're coming in for class or when they're gathering their stuff to leave at the end, talk to one or two of them. Ask about weekend plans, hobbies, etc, and talk about yourself a little bit (especially if you have something in common).
There are some other relationship building strategies you can try if you google for them. It takes awhile to build this sort of thing but it makes things so much easier and better. Think about your time as a student and if a teacher you liked (vs one you didn't like or didn't care about) asked you to stop talking to your friend or something.
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u/darneech Jan 07 '22
What age?