teaching 9th grade English

I've been teaching 9th grade English at our school for almost a month now.  It is VERY different from the adult classes that I've been teaching for the last few years.

In my adult classes I've had 8-20 students in each class, usually 15 or 16.  In the 9th grade I have over 40 students.  The adults are motivated since they chose to take the class and paid to be there.  Some of the 9th graders do want to learn, but some of them are just there because they have to be.  Adults are mostly calm, quiet, and attentive.  The 9th graders poke at each other, steal pencils, whisper or talk, and need to be told repeatedly to open their books and follow along with what we're doing.  It also seems like some of them are still in the stage of pushing and testing the teacher to see what they can get away with in class.  I don't like being tough and strict with them, but that is what I have to be for now.  I have taken down some names to deduct points from those students' scores, and on Monday I had to ask a disruptive student to step out of the classroom.  She initially refused, so I calmly said that if she didn't go now I would go find the school principal to come and see her.  She went then, and I hope that this incidence is the worst that I will have to deal with in this class.  Everyone got really quiet when I asked the student to step out!
In class on Wednesday, when I teach them for a 2 hour block, they started getting antsy and talking more during one of the exercises we were doing.  Though I try to speak in class in English as much as possible, I took a little break to give them a reprimand in French.  I reminded them that they are incredibly blessed/lucky to be in school, that there are plenty of kids in Mali that don't have the same opportunity.  You could have heard a pin drop as I gave this speech!  I said that if they want to waste their time in class by not paying attention and working, that they could go outside and sit on a bench instead of bothering the students who do want to learn.  I said that I want to see them all succeed and pass the test they have to take at the end of the year; that I will to my part to teach them well, but that they have to do their part to learn.  I said that it is a shame to waste their chance for an education, that with a good education they will have choices in life, they can do what they want.  I also reminded them of what I said on the first day of class: that I love the Malian people and want to help them in the small way that I am able to help.  I have given the students my phone number and said that they can call if they have a problem and need someone to talk to, and if they want to come by my house to visit sometime that they are welcome if they can call ahead to see if I am at home.  I don't know if any of them will ever call or come to visit, but at least they know that I care. :)

Here is what the classroom looks like from the back.

And here are a couple of chalkboards that were in the back of the classroom one morning. There is very little in the way of resources for the students but they can learn a lot if they apply themselves.