My Biggest Challenge- A Cry for Help!

I used to think I was a really patient person. Sometimes, I don't know anymore.

This is my first year of teaching. After graduating with a degree in elementary education from the University of Tulsa, I moved to Nebraska to join the Magis Catholic Teacher Corps. I teach first grade at St. Augustine Indian Mission in Winnebago. And it has been quite the experience so far.

My first graders have such rough home lives. They all live in varying degrees of poverty on the Winnebago and Omaha Indian Reservations. Alcoholism and gambling are rampant. Most live in trailers and are constantly hungry. Male role models are all but absent in the community. One told me the other day that his dad pulls his mom's hair and is a bully. Another constantly has lice and itches her head so much that she has scars on her scalp. Another has 7 siblings and doesn't have a bed to sleep on. I could go on and on. Sometimes, all I can do is cry.

Most of the time, I feel more like their mother than their teacher.

I just want to love on them and feed them (I have a closet full of snacks that my parents donated!). But my job is to teach them. Which brings me to classroom management.

With this group of kids, it feels impossible. Because they do have such rough home lives, they have so many behavior problems. At least once a day, I have to call the counselor to come get a kid because they are throwing a temper tantrum or throwing chairs or crawling under the tables and disrupting the rest of the class. Most of the time, nothing really happens to set a kid off. Usually it's because they simply don't want to do their classwork... or they're just plain exhausted, even if they don't admit it.

Most days, I feel like I'm at the end of my rope by dismissal.

I love teaching first grade. But here's the problem. The majority of the time, I feel like I'm just putting out fires rather than doing my job. I am pretty strict- I don't let my first graders get away with much, and I keep a behavior chart. But for some kids, it just doesn't work that well.  So I've tried sticker charts, promising a fun activity as a reward. I've bribed, threatened, and pleaded. Of none of those things would I say, "Oh, let me tell you about this great classroom management strategy I use!" It is so discouraging.

I don't know what else to do, but I sure know there's more that can be done. This class has gotten me thinking- is there a way that I could be using technology to improve my classroom management? With everything out there, I'm sure that there are things that would help me with classroom management.

Secondly, I have heard over and over how important it is to document everything, but I have completely failed in that regard. I am so overwhelmed every single day by discipline issues that by the end of the day, everything has blurred together. I know there must be technology out there to help with this- any suggestions?

Teachers with more experience- this is my cry for help! I'd love any suggestions about classroom management you have. Please share your wisdom with a desperate first-year teacher!