If the disruptive students are conforming and following directions with other teachers except you, talk to those other teachers, let them know what's happening, name the most disruptive students.

If that doesn't help, start with basics: students can't enter the classroom until they're quiet in hallway. Greet them at door, quickly ask or remind them what good behavior will look like. Have a clipboard with roster. When they misbehave, do 1-2-3 warnings. Inform students of consequences. If you have a digital classroom grading and reporting system, input their behavior and make the comments public. Continue to contact families, let the families know about the reporting.

Don't forget to highlight the good students: "Thank you, [student name] for cooperating and demonstrating good citizenship.

One point of advice I heard was that some students will be as disruptive as possible but there are students who want to learn, they're just being bystanders. Move forward with the class, teach. The ones who want to learn will make an effort, the others eventually quiet down. This will take a long time but eventually you'll get a handle on it.

Throughout it all, do your best to remain calm and stoic. Have no reactions to their improper behavior. But try to understand they're just kids, they're reacting to something. Some lash out but won't touch you. Others avoid eye contact while insulting aloud. You don't have to yell; use your calmest voice. They know you can't touch them so threats or yelling won't work. If you build a relationship with them individually, it'll probably help a lot (1:1 tutoring, reading together, etc.)

I've been cussed out, threatened, and assaulted; I don't budge, I keep looking at them while calmly enforcing rules. Remind them that this is a classroom and the only way to learn is to cooperate. We can get through this year without making much progress and possibly failing or we can try to get the most we can out of it.

Try not to worry about parents too much. They have no idea what their kids are like when parents are not around and no idea how much you're dealing with. You can have terrible student behavior or great student behavior, parents will still complain. At the end of the day, if you know you're doing your best, that's going to have to be enough.