10th grade world history. They had a worksheet on the Revolutions of 1848. (Should that be capitalized? I'm not sure.) It was one of those fairly easy days where the kiddos did their work (mostly) and all I had to do was to pass out worksheets and collect worksheets.
Well, except for the restroom passes...
(I swear, I'm not trying to turn this blog into the restroom pass chronicles. But it seems like this is the big issue with the kiddos currently.)
As I've mentioned before, I have my own restroom pass policy. Ms. B actually took the time to write hers down, so I made sure we followed it. The students get timed. The students then owe Ms. B double the time they took after class. So, if a student is gone 3 minutes (the average for the day), the student owes Ms. B 6 minutes after school. Simple enough.
6th period a girl asked to go. No problem. A bit later, a boy asked to go. The girl hadn't returned. That's when I noticed she'd been gone a long time. I checked the timer. 12 minutes. Yikes.
Eventually she did return. After being gone 22 minutes.
I told her to write down 44 minutes. She looked at me questioningly. I explained that she owed double the time she took, and I even showed her the timer to prove that she was gone that long.
A bit later I heard her complaining to her neighbor. About how if Ms. B got upset with her...
Um, okay...
Because it's Ms. B's fault that the girl roamed campus for 22 minutes?
(The girl said something about a broken bra strap, so it could all be innocent.)
Monday, October 20, 2014
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I remember back in the day getting hall passes and restroom passes. Best time to get out of class for awhile. (Says the former teacher!)
ReplyDeleteI never did. Not as a student. I'm not sure why.
DeleteI think if I were a teacher, I'd institute some kind of capitalist system where people got "jobs" at the beginning of the school year and got paid in fake money that could be used to purchase snacks or other things. If they wanted to take a bathroom break, then they'd have to pay for the minutes with their earnings.
ReplyDeleteOkay, twenty two minutes is just ridiculous. I don't like the idea of making the kids stay after for double the time they were gone, though. Even if it's supposed to keep them from abusing the system, it's penalizing them for using the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteSo what took 22 minutes? Did she go to the office and ask for a safety pin or something?
ReplyDeleteGood question. I left that for her teacher to find out.
DeleteSo did she stay the 44 minutes with you after class or on another day when the regular teacher would be back? I like the policy though!
ReplyDeletebetty
Can you imagine how often nine year old boys ask to go to the restroom Liz? I watch them coming back through the window and they stop and dawdle along the way. I might instigate something similar to you.
ReplyDeleteIt was a great policy, wasn't it? I hadn't seen anything like it before. For 9-year-olds? Yeah, that might help.
DeleteOh the bra strap thing-sure....and I see a pink elephant walk past my window. Sorry but I think she just liked being out of class and didn't think about the 44 minutes
ReplyDelete