Experiment with different deterrents. Many teachers use detention as a default deterrent for students who show bad attitudes during class or break time. However, many students might not change their attitudes from such a penalty. To find the best deterrent, experiment using different deterrents, observing the student's reaction after administrating the penalty. If you find that the student is unaffected by detention, try changing his assigned seat. If the student still does not make any progress, try arranging part of his class period to talk with you. Experiment until you find a penalty that affects the student.
Avoid challenging the student in front of her peers. Difficult students have a tendency to show off or exhibit negative attitudes when they have an audience of peers. If you are giving the student a penalty during class time, such as detention, simply give the penalty without acknowledging the student's reaction. That is, if the student's response is "I do not care," do not respond to that comment, even if your natural reaction is to challenge the student with a statement such as "We will see." If you need to have a discussion with the student that addresses her attitude, do so after separating the student from her peers.
Call the student's parent or guardian. Through a discussion with the student's parent or guardian, you can gain two great benefits. First, you are allowing the student's parent or guardian to understand that the student has an attitude problem is school; this might encourage the parent or guardian to make attempts to influence the child's attitude. Second, you can gain from the conversation a better understanding of why the child has an attitude problem, allowing you to create a custom plan for dealing with that individual student's attitude problem.