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When students are not getting along with each other, how do you unite them and engage them into getting back into the lesson? I was observing a friend's classroom recently during a science experiment there were two students that were fighting each other, and the teacher just left the other students alone. However it was an experiment that needed supervision because of the usage of materials. How would other teachers handle this situation?

Hannah, It is hard to answer your question without some more details such as what was the experiment and what exactly did the teacher do? But I did find a forum located under "New Teachers: Classroom Management" that might be of help to you. It is located at http://learningcenter.nsta.org/discuss/default.aspx?tid=S!plus!CsaQdgfH8_E#42664 I hope this helps.

Hannah, Betty is correct, it’s hard to answer the question without more details. Given only the information you’ve given, I would have the rest of the class stop where they are, call for an administrator, take the two students out in the hallway and see what was going on. I let both of the students know very quickly their behavior is unacceptable and that they will sit in two chairs just inside the room until the administrator comes and that they are to say absolutely nothing until the administrator asks them to speak. I then go back to the rest of the class and get them going again. When the administrator arrives, I let her know the two students were fighting making the room unsafe for others and ask her to sort it out. Luckily my administrator was a Science teacher and knows why I would remove the students and will deal with them accordingly.

Hannah, It might make a difference whether there is a physical or verbal altercation. Without question, if this was physical, the students are removed from the classroom. That has no place in any classroom, and can be extremely dangerous in the chemistry classroom. Not only that, the teacher could be held personally responsible. It would be straight to the office for disciplinary action. Verbal misconduct would probably get a second chance. Depending on the students and the severity, they would likely get a reminder of appropriate conduct, and a verbal warning. After that, if there is any concern it could escalate, I would also err on the side of safety, and put them in a "time-out" in the hall or another room. I had a problem the other day where we were playing jeopardy. Two groups decided that they did not want to participate. They were placed in the hall, but ultimately ended up in in-school-suspension because they were also disrupting the other classes in the hall. It is very difficult to know how hard to push back, but we need to take back our classrooms for the benefit of the students who want to learn. Personally, there must be consequences for actions, and if that means an ISS for repeaters, or being removed because of dangerous behavior, so be it. Just for the record, science teachers in a neighboring district have been empowered by the administration to remove students exhibiting dangerous behaviors not just for a single class, but for the remainder of the semester. The result of this is that most will need to re-take the semester in summer school, which is generally a pretty good deterrent, especially for students sophomore and above who have, drivers licenses and jobs.