Effective classroom management is always a balance between being a decent human being and a strict disciplinarian. Teachers often let too many students leave to go to the bathroom. Let me give you a few tips on reducing your bathroom trips.
First, imagine you are a student. If you have a choice to walk your girlfriend to class or to relieve yourself, what would you choose? Students keep a mental list of which teachers are "cool" and which ones you don't even bother to ask for a pass. Don't be the latter!
When a student asks you to go to the bathroom, say, "Hold that thought" and continue what you were doing. Many times the student won't ask you again. When they do, you might repeat the first step and put them off. If you can manage to put them off long enough then you can say, "Well, it's almost time to go!"
When you, on occasion, let them go, don't make it pleasant for them. Give them a dirty look. Take a deep breath to show you are slightly annoyed at them. Tell them, "Okay, but hurry. Don't make a habit of this!" Students are constantly trying to gage which teachers are cool with bathroom breaks and which ones aren't. From a psychological perspective, don't reward them with smile and an easy-going attitude. Make 'em pay!
When a student asks you loudly in front of the class if they can go, the answer is always, "No." If they ask you privately, then give them an annoying look or other posture and let them go. If your class sees you letting one student go, then you will have literally 4 or 5 saying, "Can I go, too?" Those students didn't need to go bad enough to ask themselves, but all the sudden they all have an "emergency." Don't let this happen. Make them ask you privately to avoid this line.
Keep them busy! Bell to bell business always distracts them from their bladders. Honestly, students just like to walk around. They genuinely need to go, but they really want a change of pace/scenery. You can't blame them, but you can't have 4 people per hour roaming the halls causing problems for other teachers. It seems that when I'm teaching, students rarely need to go. However, when I transition between one activity to another, someone always asks. Keep 'em busy!
Some of you will just say no all the time. That is a great approach as long as you are human about it.
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