We sort of fell into the routine of meeting at lunchtime in one of the teacher workrooms. It has been fun to see each other and get a chance to "shoot the breeze" and NOT talk about students. :)
My team-mates were asking why I had kids in my room for lunch the other day and I explained about one of my rewards for "Behavior Bingo"was to come to my room for lunch and bring a friend or two. This led us to decided to try something once a week- lunch with 4th graders in our own rooms.
We all agreed 4th was a handful discipline wise and we were struggling with it.
So we thought if we had a chance to have a small group eat lunch with us on a rotating basis maybe we could see them in a different way. We could listen to all the stories they want to tell you when they walk in the door and don't have time to hear. We could ask them what they like about school or something more specific like the atmosphere in the lunchroom.
We are hoping to make this a year round thing with just 4th and maybe 3rd grade. Our idea is to make this something that might work for our school as a "Positive Behavior System" (PBS). We started in December and I'll let you know at the end of the year if we found it successful or what. I must say I think it will be fun and worthwhile.
Peace-
We are talking more about PBS at one of my schools. That sounds like a great idea!
ReplyDeleteAhhh lunchtime. This year my schedule is nuts, very unbalanced. Some days I eat at 11:45, where I see a couple of other teachers that all watch and therefore discuss Survivor. On the other days I eat lunch a full hour later, and there's NOBODY in the staff room. At first I thought I would hate it, and then I discovered another teacher had left a little shelf of books to read. So far I've been through Gap Creek and am now in the middle of Peony in Love and I look forward to my solitary 1/2 hour with a good book.
ReplyDeleteI do have kids come to my room for lunch but not when I am eating, just when it's their lunch time. I do this with 4th and 5th grade a couple of days a week for each of them, up to 20 kids a time.