It seems every class has at least one.  The kid whose life mission, it seems, is to keep you from even getting halfway through your lesson plan.  Be it by talking to or teasing the nearest person next to them, by asking completely irrelevant questions just to get a rise out of you, or just by being a distraction in general.

I think dealing with disruptive students in Sunday School is unique in that usually attendance is not mandatory and when there are behavior issues, there's little recourse.  There's generally no PTA or parent-teacher conferences where things can be addressed.  There's no real threat of detention or suspension or the mysterious "permanent record" demerit.  So, in general, your options are limited, but there still things you can try.

General Guidelines:

1. Really, they need (and actually want) rules:
   Be Consistent - If you let the class get out of hand on a regular basis, you can't expect everyone to be on their best behavior at the drop of a hat.  This is why the first few weeks with any new class is vital.  It's where you set the tone of how your class will be run.  If you are unprepared or don't spell out your expectations, the kids will just set their own tone... and it's usually not the most productive.  After this, make sure you follow through.  If you say there will be a punishment for bad behavior, enforce it.  Everyone must understand that there are consequences for certain behaviors.
   
2. Just because they like you it doesn't mean they respect you:
   Don't be your class' "buddy" at the cost of their respect.  We all like to be liked - that's natural.  But you're there, first and foremost, to teach.  If you're not doing that, nothing else means anything.  Making and enforcing rules doesn't make you a mean person.  It means you care about their spiritual nourishment more than how you're viewed.
   
3. They don't hate you:
   Don't take anything personally.  Teenagers have problems self-censoring generally.  They say and do things that are impulsive and not always very nice.  Also, the fact that they may be misbehaving isn't usually an attack on you personally, and even if it is, it's usually without any real knowledge of who you are as a person.  Chances are if they knew you outside of the context of the classroom, they would have no issues with you.

If there is just one or a small group of students who are the source of the disruption, there's usually a reason why.  These reasons can range from rebelion to short attention span to just simple boredom.  If you only want to control behavior, there are practical steps you can take such as separating them or calling them out or making your class more "fun", but these solutions don't get to the root of the problem and it will be a battle every Sunday.

I used to have classes where I'd make the disruptive student sit right next to me in the front of the class... this worked for a while, until he found out that's where he had the bored class' undivided attention and used it as an opportunity to try to make the rest of the guys laugh behind my back.

To make lasting change, you have to change their attitude.  Again, this is why it is so important to start out your interaction with your class on the right foot from the very beginning, because shaping an attitude is easier than changing it.

The Bored One:
Sometimes you just can't help it.  Whether it's because of the materials you've been given... the subject matter... or just a consequence of the youtube/twitter instant-gratification mindset... you're going to have some bored students.  I'm sure this has been a problem since the days of Socrates.  While there's no way to completely avoid this, there are ways to minimize its impact on your class and for that student who will act out due to boredom. 

First, take away anything that he has that he will use to occupy himself that might distract others.  This includes cell phones, hand-held gaming systems, iPods, lasers, toenail clippings, flux capacitors... It's amazing what some students will do out of boredom.  I had a student who literally tried to see how tight he could wrap a mini-blind cord around his neck before it cut off his breath (see how it's good to not take anything personally?)

Next, try to engage him.  Find out what his interests are and see if you can't work that into your lesson plan.  I once had a class that consisted of a lot of students who liked to play lacrosse.  One day I made an analogy of the church to a lacrosse team and I had their undivided attention.

Whatever you do, don't try to make the class more "fun" just to keep them from being bored if it means you have to water down the lesson.  It's not worth it.  Sure you can play waste paper basket basketball with them, but are they the better for it?

Last resort:  Sometimes there is nothing you can do.  The kid will be bored even falling from the sky without a parachute.  You may just have to minimize how his ways to self-medicate his boredom affects others.  Keep things (like drum sets, mini-blind cords, and other easily annoyed kids) out of arm's reach.  Let him nod off in the back of the class as long as it doesn't encourage others to follow suit.  Give him a book to read or let him just stare at the clock until it's time to go.  Don't bring down the rest of your class to entertain them.

The Distracted One:
Sometimes a student is a distraction because he himself is distracted or has a short attention-span.  I know, I know... a teen? with a short attention span?  say it isn't so...  Usually the reason they have a hard time paying attention is two-fold. One, they're not engaged.  Two, you're not engaging.

Don't just lecture.  There is no quicker way to totally disengage with your class.  A mind doesn't wander if there is something it needs to process.  Challenge them.  Don't just ask simple one-word-answer questions.  Ask questions that make them think.  Good questions for this usually begin with the word "Why".  If your kids have been in Sunday School a while, they've already heard plenty of "what, when, and where" questions, and if they've ever heard a "why" question, the answer is almost always "because Jesus loves us."  I will write another entry someday about how to prepare good, discussion-generating questions later.  (I started writing it here, but realized I had enough text for an entirely new entry)

Don't be afraid to ask individual students (especially the distracted one) questions.  Sometimes they actually have an opinion on something but don't think anyone wants to hear it.  This does two things.  It forces them to think about what you asked and it keeps them on their toes in case you ask something else later.

The white board is your friend.  Sometimes students will look at the board just because you're writing something on it.  This way you're using the "distraction" of writing appearing on the board to your favor.  It sounds almost too simple, but it works.  In fact, every now and then spell something incorrectly because sometimes a kid will just latch onto checking your spelling.

The Rebellious One:
He's sometimes the one who's being forced to be there.  Or maybe he's the one who just has issues with Christianity in general.  Sometimes he has had bad experiences in Sunday School before and carries that feeling over to you.  And sometimes it's just that you just rub him the wrong way for whatever reason.

A fair amount of time the one that's rebeling is actually one of the brightest kids in the class.  Maybe they feel like they're wasting their time there or they don't respect the teacher's level of knowledge.  If you get into a battle of wills with someone like this, it's almost always a losing situation because they can always stalemate and win, because you also have only an hour to teach the rest of the class.  In fact, he is usually trying to draw you into some sort of conflict.  Don't fall for it.  Rise above it.

There's little you can do in class to stave off this type of behavior.  If you're quick on your feet, you can try to parry some of the darts he throws, but most of the time it's best to ignore them completely.  Sometimes if he knows he can't get a rise out of you, he will stop trying.

Your best hope in making any headway is outside of class.  Take a moment to speak to him one-on-one and see what issues he's having.  If he sees that you respect him, there's a chance he might start to respect you.  If you have the time, take him out to lunch or have coffee with him.  If you see leadership potential in him, see if you can't give him some official role in class to give him a stake in the success of the class.

But if your attempts are in vain, you may just have to ask him to leave the class... or at least give your blessing to excuse him from class.  This is a last resort because chances are the rest of the class is suffering during your in-class battle of wills.  Make an effort to continue to reach out to him, but in the end, he has to come back on his own terms.  Always leave the door open for reconciliation.

General Tips:

• If someone is being a distraction while you are speaking, try just walking over to where they are sitting while you're still talking.  Sometimes this is enough to stop the behavior because they are aware that you notice.
• Irrelevant Questions:  Whether it's the class clown trying to get a laugh or the smart alec with the "could God make a rock so heavy even He can't lift it" question, either way, it has more to do with subtly taking control over the class than anything else.  Don't let them.  A good way to stop this behavior is to take a "joke" question seriously and turn it around to make a point about the lesson (class clowns HATE this).  Or if they ask a question to which you know they don't really want to know the answer but want to get a rise out of you, take the question seriously and offer to talk to them more about it after class... in fact, make it an assignment for them to research the question and report back to you the next week.
• Getting texts/calls in class:  If a student is habitually getting calls in class, don't just take away their phone (nothing will start a fight faster than trying to take a teen's phone away).  Give them a choice (that way, they think they have at least some control).  Either give you their phone at the beginning of class or turn it completely off (not silent) for the duration of the class.  If they use the excuse of "my mom is going to call me," considering the parent is probably at the church, call their bluff and say that they can tell them that the parent can come by and talk to them whenever they want.  Usually parents will not do this during class time.  If it's truly a parent that is calling, offer to speak to the parent directly on the phone and explain to them about what time class ends and if they'd like for their child to get out earlier, they can pick them up.  This also prevents the student from lying saying that all his calls are from a parent.
• Food:  Do not allow food in class unless everyone is participating.  It's not that the food itself is a distraction, but it sends a message that the class time is not a priority.  Whenever my students try to bring food into class, I tell them to finish it outside and then they can enter.  The class time is only for having class.
• Talking to a neighbor in class is not the problem.  It's just a symptom of the behaviors listed above.  If you deal with the attitude, the talking will stop.  Sometimes if a student is talking, if you stop talking until the student's voice is the only one the class hears, he will stop... but usually this doesn't last very long.

You should also know what behaviors you should just let go.  If your class comes to a screeching halt because someone isn't paying attention, you're never going to get very far.  Don't let the occasional disruption completely throw a monkey wrench in your lesson plan.  A little bit of patience and a lot of perseverance will win out in the end.

Again, as a last resort, you might just have to ask the student to leave.  I've had students where nothing worked and the class was going down the tubes as a result.  This is not fair to the other students.  It may sound harsh, but if the rest of the class thrives without him, it's a price you may have to pay.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.  I'm also always available by email for advice or just to have someone to commiserate with.

Next time:  The Unmotivated Class (or How to Engage Your Students)

I just returned from my honeymoon to Europe and saw a lot of things... priceless works of art, historic monuments, ancient ruins... but the things that left the greatest impression on me were some of the cathedrals.  We saw many of them... St. Paul's, St Mark's, Notre Dame, St. Peter's to name a  few.  As awe-inspiring as these huge cathedrals were, I was even struck by the smaller ones we'd see in other smaller towns as well.

Now, I'm not Catholic. I was mystified about when to cross myself, or when to kneel, or to stand during the few masses we attended (I bet that when I try to follow along, the parishioners are all watching me and thinking, "silly Protestant, that's not a foot rest...").  So I have to caveat everything I'm about to say with that.

And though there are a lot of theological points on which I have disagreements with the Catholic church, I think with what they were going for with cathedrals was spot on (look at me, we were in London for three days and I'm already using phrases like "spot on").

As my sore neck can attest to, whenever we went into one of these places, my eyes would always turn upward because that's where it was most beautiful and awe-inspiring, especially because near the ground it was typically dark or there would be crypts everywhere.  One of the tour guides said that this was done on purpose to show how dreary and hopeless things on the earth were, but to see the beauty and hope in this life, you have to look heavenward to God.

Standing in those grand cathedrals, I couldn't help but feel small and insignificant but also that God was big and mighty.  I think that in the Protestant church, we've lost a little of that, and I think that the Megachurch is, in part, the product of this.

I've attended a few megachurch services, and more times than not, I've felt more like a spectator or concertgoer than anything else... and instead of my eyes turning up to look to God in awe-inspired wonder, my eyes were turned to the stage to look at very talented musicians and dramatists and be rather entertained.  Sometimes I'd be very moved by the music or the drama and feel closer to God, but I would lose that sense of God being BIG.

In the megachurches I'd visit the setup would be that all the focus was on the stage.  The "house" lights would be turned down, the music was pumped up, and the spotlight would shine on the featured act or speaker.  If I were to ever look up, I'd just see catwalks or spotlights or other things to support what was going on around the stage.  The seats were like those in a movie theater... one church even had snacks and beverages available in the lobby.  Any "smallness" I'd feel would be because of the fact that I was anonymous in the darkness among the thousands in the stadium seating.

All this to say that I'd like to see us bring some of that awe and wonder back into the church... maybe not with huge domes or stained glass or beautiful sculptures because, in the end, that's all created by human hands as well... but somehow to remember that God is BIG... and that things of earth are fleeting... and that worship is for Him and not for us.