How to get students to behave

Isn't that just about the biggest questions of teaching? My student teaching experiences did not prepare me for this question: I was teaching in much different populations in established classrooms, and the teachers rarely left me alone to fend for myself. Luckily, in my (almost) 3 years of teaching, I've learned a lot.

Environment is important! My first year, one of my schools had me teaching on the stage in the cafeteria/multi-purpose-room. We had to pull the curtain, because in the rest of the room, there would be pre-schoolers having breakfast and baby-sitters baby-sitting children of adults learning English somewhere else (in a real classroom, presumably). I thought this was one of those things I couldn't change: It had been this way before I came and this is how the principal set it up. But we had a talk about classroom management in an unmanageable environment (the students were sitting on risers on the stage, with about 5 students per square foot, for pete's sake) and the next year I was assigned to something more resembling a real classroom. The next year, in a slightly better space, was MUCH better for my teaching. And there were some more changes. My principal at the other school switched me to a classroom as well. And so now I teach in classroom that I control. And that already has enabled me to be a much better teacher.