TILS D(cc)

Activity: Assist in lunch duty for some extended amount of time (at
least four weeks)
Description:
Students report the lunchroom by grade level. There are around six to
seven classes in each grade level. The teachers have duty free lunch
and the administrators rotate hours of lunch duty to relieve the
teachers. The students are to sit at the assigned tables for their class
and sit boy/girl patter on both sides of the table. The noise level can
get really loud really quickly if not monitored and handled before its
too loud. The students are not to get up at any time after being
seated. They are to raise their hands if they need help or condiments,
etc. They are not allowed to return to the lunch line once they have
entered the dining area. The administrator walks around and monitors
behaviors and noise levels. The administrator also lines the classes up
but dismissing the tables to dump their trash at the pick up time and
end of lunch period. Each class gets 25 minutes from start to finish.
The teachers are to be on time to pick up the students to ensure there
is no over crowding in the lunchroom.
What went well?
I had permission from the administration to help in the monitoring
process and to eat my lunch during my planning period with my team
as we planned. This was the only way to get the experience in with the
students present at school. I would do lunch duty for 50 minutes a
week , two lunch periods. I did this for the entire school year. It was
interesting to see the growth and habits at the different parts of the
year. At the beginning of the year the expectations were set and
reviewed. Nothing had changed from the precious years so it was a
review. The only group that needed more time and extra focus of
expectations were the kindergartens new to the buildings, which were
seven classrooms. The process was slow to start but over time got
faster and more efficient. The students understood the administrator
was expecting the correct behavior and would not except anything
less.
What did not go well?
First, the schedule was not planned as productive as possible. Due to
the large number of classrooms, the classes would divide and three
classes would drop off at one time and five minutes later the other four
classes would drop off. This caused the line to be long and behavior

became an issue. I believe setting exact times in intervals would have

been more effective. However, the administrator explained that the
lunch periods would run too long and take up too much of the day if we
ran a schedule differently. The administrator on duty most days was
the assistant principal. He did the whole lunch period each day which
was over 2.5 hours of his day. He would get frustrated and appear not
very pleasant. This was hard because the students were not allowed
to talk and this is the only time in the day other than recess they had a
chance to talk freely. The mood changed everyday. If a student was in
trouble form class or from lunch that day, they were to sit at the desks
along the walk as silent lunch. This area was the only place to put
them due to the large crowds in the lunchroom. This hardly was
effective because they would just talk to each other and to the
students lining up and caused the administrator to have to monitor and
continually get on to these students.
Given the chance to do it again, what would you do better?
I would start by revising the schedule of when the classes were
dropped off to help the behaviors in the line. Then I would put a red
light or some kind of visual in place to help monitor the noise level
rather than having to yell or shout over the noise. I would also create
some cubicles for the students on silent lunch to ensure they were not
able to talk and play with the other silent lunch students at the desks.
I would have a schedule in place for the administrators and office staff
and paraprofessionals to rotate each day so the assistant principal was
not assigned to duty for the whole time everyday. I would put a
positive incentive rewards program into place to reward and showcase
the classrooms that followed the rules and behaved correctly during
lunch.