Classroom management

I have struggled and struggled and struggled with keeping my classes in control while allowing for them to talk. I've always thought that it was too hard to keep the talking on topic because I was afraid to discourage them to speak. But with TPRS, there is no other way. The class has to be under control or the method will not work. So this week, my only goal was to work on the classroom management. I printed off the rules (available at benslavic.com) and took an entire class period (well, almost) talking to the students about the rules, why they are there, what it looks like, what it doesn't look like, etc. Then we practiced while we talked about their weekends. The next day in class, we told a story, and I focused on the classroom management instead of spending all my time working on the story. If a student broke a rule, I would stand and point to the rule. Eventually, they understood and stopped the behavior. I still waited a few extra beats before continuing on with the story. If it was the whole class, I waited. If it was one person, I pointed to them and the rule at the same time. I don't want to say that it worked perfectly, but it worked wonders for me. I was so much happier at the end of the day and I feel like we accomplished just as much as we would have if I hadn't taken the time to control my class before teaching them. Everyone always says that, but I'm really seeing it in action for the first time. It's awesome. I think the switch is that I decided I would focus on it...head-on for a full week. I will nit-pick every utterance until the students understand what is appropriate in class. Now I just have to keep on them and follow-through every class. Hopefully they will get used to it quickly so I won't have to remind them so often.