We all know that lunch duty in the cafeteria is
not a popular job, but I have it nonetheless! At my school, students come to lunch by grade level in 30
minute increments; usually 5 minutes in line to get food, 15 minutes of
eating/talking (mostly talking), 5 minutes to buy ice cream, and then 5 minutes
to dismiss and line up outside. Teachers have a duty free lunch and we don't do staggered lunch times.
So when you are working with 100-120 students at a
time, lunch duty can be quite the challenge. Add a few visiting parents, a
crying student who forgot his/her ice cream money, students who are
commissioned to silent lunch, and the students who manage to get their food and
drink everywhere but in their mouth, and you have a recipe for chaos. We have
tried stop light monitors, music, lights out, whistles, and more. You just can’t
keep the volume down in the cafeteria. How do you maintain order at your school during lunch time? Some parents have complained that they do not want a whistle blown at their child.
Some parents think the stop light is too sensitive. Some parents frown on a few
minutes of silent lunch. My question is…what works? What techniques do you have
for getting students in and out of the cafeteria in an orderly and somewhat
quiet manner? How do you maintain order among a large group of students when
everything you try gets met with disapproval, so much so, that you constantly
have to look for new techniques? I'm searching for a happy medium; something that parents, students, and administrators could all live with. I found one school's success story of Bringing Calm to the Cafeteria but not so sure that's the right solution for my school. I would like to weigh all my options for good crowd control. The wasting of food will be saved for another post!
Have you considered working with a student group (i.e. student council) to come up with a solution?
ReplyDeleteI also think it is important to identify your objective. Is it for the lunchroom to be quiet? Orderly? Both? Because the cafeteria is one place where students can informally socialize, I'm actually OK with an acceptable level of noise there.
I will definitely consider working with our student council. Thank you for that idea.
DeleteMy objective is probably what Kolt discussed in her response: to have behavior that reflects how they would eat in public or at a restaurant. We have discussed several times that you would never yell across tables in a restaurant or fling food from forks or put jello on someone else's mashed potatoes, just to name a few. I do think that they need unorganized time to talk and socialize, it just seems that they get in the lunch room and act in ways that they would never act with their parents, maybe? I'll continue to work on this and see what some of the students can help me come up with.
Oh man, Kimberly, I am so happy you posted about this because lunch duty is literally the bane of my job. I can't stand it for many of the same reasons that you mentioned. It is simply too much and not enough organized structure. I literally felt last week like my head was going to implode!
ReplyDeleteBut, I think that Dr. Sauers makes a great point. What do we want they to do or get out of the cafeteria? For me, I want my students to learn that there is a manner and style to eating in public. Or, I want them to learn how to eat as if they were eating in a restaurant. Sure you can talk to a table friend, but not shout across the room. Of course you can get up to use the restroom, but not every single person at the same time. I have tried to frame eating and the expectations of lunchroom behavior in this way, and I have had a better response. On Fridays, I bring in "fancy ware" which is simply me wrapping their utensils in larger soft napkins, placing a sticker on the closure, and letting them drink some juice out of a solo cup. It has made a difference for me, and my students are learning to behave in a manner that I know will benefit them in the long run.
Thanks for sharing, Kolt. I too have the same objective as you and would like them to behave the way they do in public/restaurant/with parents. I love the idea of wrapping up their utensils. Maybe I can do something similar. I am going to consider what you said in your post and what Dr. Sauers said in his and see how I can at least make lunchtime somewhat pleasant for all! Thank you.
DeleteOh man, Kimberly, I am so happy you posted about this because lunch duty is literally the bane of my job. I can't stand it for many of the same reasons that you mentioned. It is simply too much and not enough organized structure. I literally felt last week like my head was going to implode!
ReplyDeleteBut, I think that Dr. Sauers makes a great point. What do we want they to do or get out of the cafeteria? For me, I want my students to learn that there is a manner and style to eating in public. Or, I want them to learn how to eat as if they were eating in a restaurant. Sure you can talk to a table friend, but not shout across the room. Of course you can get up to use the restroom, but not every single person at the same time. I have tried to frame eating and the expectations of lunchroom behavior in this way, and I have had a better response. On Fridays, I bring in "fancy ware" which is simply me wrapping their utensils in larger soft napkins, placing a sticker on the closure, and letting them drink some juice out of a solo cup. It has made a difference for me, and my students are learning to behave in a manner that I know will benefit them in the long run.
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ReplyDeleteHi Kimberly!
ReplyDeleteI am at a middle school with only about 100 students in the cafeteria at a time but we have some temporary and permanent strategies for maintaining order. Assigned seats, silent until everyone has their lunch and time off break were somethings we did at the beginning to teach them a lesson. Cafeteria monitors receive some extra incentives and monitor noise and trash/clean up. There will always be somebody unhappy...but order is the most important thing. Hope something works!
This is my third time to respond to your post! The first two got deleted somehow! I like the idea posted in your link. It seems easy for the monitors to use and and obvious indicator to the students as what the should do. I am a big proponent of Restorative Practices. It focuses on doing things WITH the students rather than FOR them or TO them. If the teachers were trained on restorative circles, I would suggest using them to discuss the cafeteria situation and see what ideas the students have to share. If you like, I could come to your school one day and hold a circle in a teacher's classroom or two to show you how this works.
ReplyDeleteI've always felt very different about cafeteria duty. I often times have explained to my students that although I do not want you all to eat in silence, we may have to spend some time in Level 0- complete silence. Once we have reviewed the expectation, they may move to a Level 1- conversation with your neighbor. I am not sure how to control cafeteria issues. At the end of the day, when we as adults and families go out to eat, what happens? The venue becomes extremely loud and you have no one walking around saying "Lower your voices"
ReplyDelete