Adventures in Lunch Duty
Posted by Hope Spencer on 26 Mar 2009 | Posted in: Life After School, Teachers and Teaching
Okay, quick survey here … How many times have you helped a child open a juice box during your teaching career? By the middle of my third year, I had perfected my lunch duty technique. You should have seen me! I could open a milk carton with one hand and peel a banana with the other. That’s not all, though. At the same time, I was consoling three other students—one who didn’t like something his mother had packed for him, one who misunderstood the lunch calendar and was stuck with something she wouldn’t eat, and one who forgot his chocolate-milk money. Whew! I was good.
If my lunchtime duty was on the playground, I would arm myself with nurse notes, whistle, and latex gloves and head outside. That was usually better than the lunchroom. I say “usually” because I spent a lot of my teaching career in Nebraska, where it is … cold! During the winter, I bought lots of hand warmers, the kind hunters use, but I was still oh, so cold!
Between you and me, I dreaded lunch duty. There were lots of little reasons. (While we’re talking, do you have that perpetually late teacher who is supposed to relieve you after ten minutes or so? I did!) But I guess the most important reason was that I always felt like I had so many other things I needed to be doing. (Not to mention that I needed some time to eat my lunch.) How about you? Lunch duty—take it or leave it?
Well, teachers wouldn’t want their students to answer a question that was worded that way, would they? Let me revise that. Lunch duty—take it or leave it—and why?
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I love lunch duty and normally we do it in the 1st term of the school. We do tell students that they will have to take turn weekly in the 2nd term. Students are normally happy to do this, because i told them that they are my assistant who is looking after my student to eat healthy food in good manner. Those students will be given rewards such as points to be collected and redeemed in the school store after reaching some levels. Each student will be given points when they’ve finished their healthy food and drink. However, their points will be taken away when they spilt the food, didnt finish their food… etc. This can be done for individual student or group. I like group system, because they can remind each other to reach the point level they aimed. After 1 semester, i normally have students eat their food in good manner and helpful to each other.
All our staff have at least one duty every day: either breakfast, recess, lunch, or bus. I don’t mind any of them…and no major problems after 13 years! It’s a good chance to catch up with the students. And the days that I don’t have lunch duty, I am eating in the cafeteria, but not always with the students. We don’t have a teacher’s room, so the only other option is in our classrooms…and I’m there often enough!
I like lunch duty:)sorry. I try to find the good in it. I take turns siting at different tables and talking with the students. They love it! I also bring extra things to lunch to eat and share with the students.You really find out a lot. One of my students was having a bad day in class and I sat at his table and found out that he had a bad weekend and was tired and didn’t want to be in school today. We talked and I explain we all have to do things sometimes we don’t want too. The talk made him have a good afternoon. He also came back after the bell rung and said thanks for caring and listening. Sometimes the little things you can do can turn around a bad situation to a good one.
I love lunch duty, also! Yes, there are those days when you dread lunch duty, but for the most part I LOVE IT! It is a time a learning,sharing, and most of all being with friends. I love sitting with the other teachers and seeing how their day has gone thus far. Then to watch the students as they examine what their mom packed for them for lunch. One moment I recall is when one of my Kindergartener’s got a note from their grandma and the note read : “U R My Favorite Superhero!” Love GMA. xoxo. This made that little boys day to see that very special note in his lunch! So Lunch Time is very special to me. I too let the students figure out how to open their juice boxes,etc. It teaches them hand-eye cordination, but also lets them know that they CAN DO IT! If the wrapper is too strong for them and they can not open it then I help. (Sometimes those wrappers are even adult proof!) I LOVE LUNCH TIME!
At our school, we actually have “duty” every day…we eat WITH our students!! I LOVE lunch time!! It is such a wonderful time to just “talk” to the students about things that are important to them, but not “in the standards!” I have tried to help them learn to solve many of their lunch problems themselves and it has helped create a more relaxed environment for all of us. I ask them if they have tried to open the packet themselves first, then see if a friend near them can help. Then, finally, they come to me and I explain what I’m doing as I open it. As the year goes on, they quickly learn who can open the mustard and the mayo the best!! I also hear them repeating my same directions as they open it. If someone is coming to ask me to open a packet they will often say, “And I tried it myself first!” Lunch is also a good time to talk about healthy food choices, good manners, soft voices, etc. I seldom fuss at them and, if I do, I use a respectful voice just for them, not the entire cafeteria! We eat like a family would and I like to think that this provides an opportunity for those children who may not often get the experience. Just a funny lunch story: I started bringing my lunch to school this year and one of my students said, “Ms. Bieger, I wish you would stop bringing your lunches to school so that YOU have to eat what WE HAVE TO!!
I love lunch duty! I love to mingle with the kids in a more “light hearted” scenario. I also love visiting with kids from previous years.
OK, lunch duty I could do without–where did our students get their manners??? But, I loved when I had recess duty! I liked seeing the students interacting with other students that they don’t normally get to in class! I also got a chance to meet all the kiddos in my grade level, so I knew more than just my students! Sure, there were bloody noses scraped knees and friends not getting along, but that’s part of life and no big deal. Where I am now, we have assistants do all our duties, and with the money situation the way it is, we may go back to covering our own duties. Most of my fellow teachers are complaining–but not me! Bring it on!
I do not like having to attend to students during lunch or recess. I have had to do it in the past and it always seemed as if I had the worst-case scenarios: spilt lunches all over the front of my blouse/dress, cuts from plastic knives (from the kids by the way), allergic reactions to peanuts and/or peanut butter, head injuries of students during recess, etc. I now work for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools and any extra duty is compensated monetarily. Lunch Duty and Recess Duty is handled by aides and coaching positions are nicely rewarded monetarily also. If it is outside the realm of “teaching in the classroom” it is considered an extra duty and must be compensated monetarily.