How to manage an oversized classroom with no support or SPED training
When a single classroom packs dozens of students with diverse learning needs, ADHD, and autism without adequate assistance or access to IEPs, teachers face constant interruptions that make genuine instruction nearly impossible. This overwhelming environment leaves educators drowning in behavioral demands, lacking the specialized training or help required to support every child.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Doing collaborative and strategic group work to maximize the inherent chaos and let some groups run themselvesDid this help you?
- 2Expanding common accommodations to everyone to avoid checking paperwork constantlyDid this help you?
- 3Differentiating summative assessments and letting students choose appropriate versionsDid this help you?
- 4Streamlining grading using focused rubrics on one or two skillsDid this help you?
- 5finding another job that pays similar wagesDid this help you?
- 6reaching out to veteran teachers at the school for supportDid this help you?
- 7Using a 'do as many as you can' format with optional extensionsDid this help you?
- 8Placing different written directions physically at each center tableDid this help you?
- 9Creating modified versions of the same worksheet that look similarDid this help you?
- 10Implementing a 'hardest first' challenge system to route students to different difficulty sheetsDid this help you?
- 11Rotational scheduling where centers span multiple days with a large group lesson startDid this help you?
- 12Using math centers to rotate students into different ability groupsDid this help you?
- 13Working 1:1 with students to build foundational skillsDid this help you?
- 14Enlisting parent volunteers, interventionists, or special education staff to help run skill centersDid this help you?
- 15trying games and activitiesDid this help you?
- 16loss of lunch privilegesDid this help you?
- 17in-school suspensionDid this help you?
- 18repeated calls homeDid this help you?
- 19seeking help from the departmentDid this help you?
- 20Switching to music without lyricsDid this help you?
- 21Having students who want music wear headphonesDid this help you?
- 22Providing noise-canceling devices or earplugs for students bothered by noiseDid this help you?
- 23Turning off background music entirely when one student complainsDid this help you?
- 24Weighing legal requirements versus the degree of benefit versus harmDid this help you?
- 25Helping students who actively seek help firstDid this help you?
- 26Supporting only the most willing and receptive studentsDid this help you?
- 27Limiting focus strictly to educational matters rather than taking on emotional stressDid this help you?
- 28Moving to a different school district where students are closer to grade levelDid this help you?
- 29Switching from private to public school to get a collaborative teacher for low-level studentsDid this help you?
- 30Spending the first 5+ years figuring out how to teach multi-level classroomsDid this help you?
- 31Using classroom assistants each weekDid this help you?
- 32Assigning table captains to pass out and collect materialsDid this help you?
- 33Refusing to do labs with large classes due to monitoring difficultiesDid this help you?
- 34Checking district rules for class-size or student-load extra pay thresholdsDid this help you?
- 35Emailing administration to express preferences against teaching freshmenDid this help you?
- 36Using scripted or one-size-fits-all teaching materialsDid this help you?
- 37Focusing instruction on one tier of students while others get left behindDid this help you?
- 38Looking for another teaching positionDid this help you?
- 39Switching to teaching at a high schoolDid this help you?
- 40Teaching to the lowest students as directed by the schoolDid this help you?
- 41Walking around the room frequently to stay active and maintain a constant presenceDid this help you?
- 42Setting strict expectations and rules early onDid this help you?
- 43Using seating charts to control behavior and take roll easierDid this help you?
- 44Implementing call and response techniques to regain room controlDid this help you?
- 45Involving students in creating classroom rules and Spotify playlists for independent workDid this help you?
- 46Manually modifying worksheets and reading levels for hoursDid this help you?
- 47Assigning one-size-fits-all work that is too easy for some students and too hard for othersDid this help you?
- 48Working late into the night (until 10 PM) on administrative prep and gradingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“My Jr High classes are split between kids who have clearly spent time developing their skills and are ready for things beyond their grade level and those that never bother to even attempt to engage and are still skip counting on their fingers to multiply single digit numbers in ninth grade.”source ↗
“Ps:Had to teach 3 classes with 35+ students & almost had a whole breakdown during the 3rd period”source ↗
“I’ve got 4 freshmen classes of 33-36 kids.”source ↗
“It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve been back and I’m ready to quit. It’s so exhausting dealing with the damn freshmen and their attitudes.”source ↗
“I’m really struggling with how to teach this class as a whole. So many of them are completely lost when I teach so participation is extremely low and I find myself repeating my lessons over and over again to no avail.”source ↗
“I don’t want my grade level students falling behind for their peers lack of understanding.”source ↗
“I am struggling to balance a positive classroom culture with such a low bunch of students.”source ↗
“Today we got our reorg order and my grade 5 class is absorbing half of a grade 4 class. I now have 120 students.”source ↗
“My admin won’t help, the homeroom teachers won’t help, and my co-teacher is on stress leave.”source ↗
“I can’t do this for another 30 years. I just can’t.”source ↗
“Idk what to do I’m about to burn out.”source ↗
“This is an impossible task to do on a daily basis.”source ↗
“It literally feels impossible to help all of these kids actually learn and support them in the ways they need.”source ↗
“Every five seconds someone needs something from me, and I am so overwhelmed.”source ↗
“I am a middle school teacher and my school expects us to use centers essentially everyday.”source ↗
“I cant say ‘group 1, you answer all four question, group two, only answer the first two questions.’”source ↗
“I don’t know how I can do this without kids arguing that they have to do more work than others or even bullying other kids for needing more intervention.”source ↗
“I just don't have enough time in the day to help my highschoolers, and if I spread my time and energy evenly, I fear that my entire caseload will suffer.”source ↗
“Every student deserves help, who am I to decide who's worthy of that help?”source ↗
“Either way, this is definitely extra work and extra brain power!”source ↗
“What do you do when one's needs are more important, but deprive the majority?”source ↗
“This semester I have a student who strongly opposes music being played. He finds it distracting and says he absolutely cannot work, discuss, or anything else if there is quiet music in the background.”source ↗
“So far I've been accommodating his request and class has been silent. But I notice on days he's absent, when I do play music, the discussions are noticably better, and longer.”source ↗
“When one student is allowed to play games on a Chromebook to regulate, and the others aren't, it's a massive distraction that makes me want to tear my hair out.”source ↗
“How do you all handle this, when one student has needs that are possibly more pressing/grounded, but accommodating it causes the rest of the class to falter somewhat?”source ↗
“I still personally struggle with classroom management especially with it only being my second year.”source ↗
“I was coteaching my biggest class with another teacher on my team. She has been pulled from my class and I was told that we will no longer be teaching together and I probably won’t have another coteacher despite having 12 IEPs with 23 kids.”source ↗
“it is impossible for one person to support all of them by themselves.”source ↗
“i really need your classroom management tips too,these classes are killing me and to top it all off all of these 9th graders have been classmates for the past 3 years..so 1st day of school and they are already sitting with their buddies and all that and really feel comfortable talking back and joking around...couldn't even teach a single page”source ↗
“35 middle students in a kindergarten sized classroom and oversized tables. Sardines and no room for storage. 💀”source ↗
“I am currently teaching in a school where I am both the kindergarten and first grade teacher. I have 21 students and only about 3 don't have some learning difficulties, ADHD or are on the spectrum.”source ↗
“This is my first year they threw me into what is essentially SPED class with no training.”source ↗
“I've had no access to IEPs, my boss typically just will tell us if the kid has some type of learning difficulty but that's all.”source ↗
“Non-stop redirection during lessons, despite multiple times going over classroom expectations.”source ↗
“Talking, paper-throwing, eraser-throwing, getting up during lessons, note-passing, etc.”source ↗
“Loss of lunch privledges haven't worked. In-school suspension hasn't worked. Repeated calls home haven't worked.”source ↗
“most days I feel like I'm just talking to myself and I go home defeated and tired and loathe to wake up and come back for more the next day.”source ↗
“All of my classes are fairly low performing and students are all understanding materials at different paces.”source ↗
“My 8th grade class tests between 2nd-7th grade in math skills so it is hard to teach 8th grade level content when they don’t even have their times tables down.”source ↗
“Some kids know everything so far from 8th grade, while others don’t even know what it means to distribute.”source ↗
“over 75% of my students are struggling no matter how slow I move content along.”source ↗
“This year, I have 31 fifth graders. 15 of those are very high students... The rest were below with many having D's and F's. A few read at a kindergarten or below level. I have very few middle kids. The gap has become insane.”source ↗
“I could spend 4 hours manually differentiating worksheets for the week, or I can give AI the standard worksheets and have it adjust them for the different levels, review them, and be done in 30 minutes.”source ↗
“It saves my sanity and, most of the time before AI I just had to go with work that was too easy for some and too difficult for others and just roll with it because I simply didn't have the time to do all that differentiation unless I felt like working until 10pm every night.”source ↗
“Teachers are expected to differentiate for every type and level of learner (special ed to gifted and everything in between) with huge classes sizes and a curriculum that bores kids to death.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How do you teach a combined grade elective without losing control?
- 4How to teach severely disabled students in a regular classroom with no help
- 5How to manage dozens of IEPs in a crowded classroom
- 10How to balance classroom control with letting students talk
- 16How to handle a chaotic last period elective class
- 2Why are honors classes full of average students?