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When I was in HS (back in the late 80's), there was always a teacher in the hall. Sitting at a desk grading papers or doing other work. This was to keep an eye on students who were out of class during class time for whatever reason they were in the halls. Possibly even making note of who was in the hall at what time and where he/she went and time of return. We didn't have to ask to leave class for any reason, so no passes were necessary.
My kids attend the same school - same thing in the HS so many years later. Always a teacher in the hall at a desk.
I'm surprised that kids are allowed to keep their cell phones on them in some schools (as mentioned in this thread). Cell phones are "allowed" in the school my kids go to, but must stay in the locker and be turned off. If one is heard ringing/dinging/beeping/whatever it's an instant detention. The kids are free to check their cell phones when they go to their lockers in between classes if they must, but I don't see a reason for it. Who do they need to contact? Use the office phone if you have to call your parents and parents should do the same if they need to contact their kid during school hours.
When I was in HS (back in the late 80's), there was always a teacher in the hall. Sitting at a desk grading papers or doing other work. This was to keep an eye on students who were out of class during class time for whatever reason they were in the halls. Possibly even making note of who was in the hall at what time and where he/she went and time of return. We didn't have to ask to leave class for any reason, so no passes were necessary.
My kids attend the same school - same thing in the HS so many years later. Always a teacher in the hall at a desk.
I'm surprised that kids are allowed to keep their cell phones on them in some schools (as mentioned in this thread). Cell phones are "allowed" in the school my kids go to, but must stay in the locker and be turned off. If one is heard ringing/dinging/beeping/whatever it's an instant detention. The kids are free to check their cell phones when they go to their lockers in between classes if they must, but I don't see a reason for it. Who do they need to contact? Use the office phone if you have to call your parents and parents should do the same if they need to contact their kid during school hours.
That is a very expensive hall monitor, to pay a teacher to sit there. I cannot imagine many school systems could afford to pay a teacher to monitor the halls. My school has seven academic periods, plus a "remediation/enrichment period." Teacher teach five academic periods, plus the remediation/enrichment period. On their "off" periods, they are almost always in meetings (with the exception of maybe 90-120 minutes per week, during which they are making parent calls, responding to parent emails, making copies, etc.). I don't even have time to go to the restroom myself; I can't imagine having time to monitor hallways.
I WELCOME cell phones in my classroom. Kids aren't making calls; they are using their phones as interactive tools for journals, research, review games, interactive prompts, exit tickets, etc. I think it is very sad to hear that some schools still don't allow them to be used in classrooms. Those schools are not meeting children where they are, nor are they preparing them for the future. We can't turn a blind eye to technology.
NOPE, if they say they gotta go, let them. If they are lying, nothing you can do about it.
If I was a kid and some teacher would not "let" me use the bathroom.....I would just up and go anyways. Just like when we had "dancing" week in my PE class......I refused to participate and got sent to the Principal's off.
That is a very expensive hall monitor, to pay a teacher to sit there. I cannot imagine many school systems could afford to pay a teacher to monitor the halls. My school has seven academic periods, plus a "remediation/enrichment period." Teacher teach five academic periods, plus the remediation/enrichment period. On their "off" periods, they are almost always in meetings (with the exception of maybe 90-120 minutes per week, during which they are making parent calls, responding to parent emails, making copies, etc.). I don't even have time to go to the restroom myself; I can't imagine having time to monitor hallways.
Don't teacher's "monitor" lunch periods, recess, study halls in your school? What's the difference? You can email a parent from a hallway just as well as you can from the lounge or your empty classroom.
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I WELCOME cell phones in my classroom. Kids aren't making calls; they are using their phones as interactive tools for journals, research, review games, interactive prompts, exit tickets, etc. I think it is very sad to hear that some schools still don't allow them to be used in classrooms. Those schools are not meeting children where they are, nor are they preparing them for the future. We can't turn a blind eye to technology.
No one said they were making calls during class time. What was mentioned was that they might get a text and all of sudden have to pee - to meet a peer of theirs in a hall, an elevator, a bathroom, under the bleachers....wherever.
You teach relying on kids having internet access through their cell phones? What if a kid doesn't have a smart phone? Buddy up with someone else who does? Journal together?
With respect to the school my kids attend: don't feel too bad. There are smart boards in every classroom and all students have iPads. It's a requirement for HS'ers. The MS'ers and LS'ers have a plethora of iPads "loaned" out (by the school) to the kids when they are asked for. Plus an IT center where teachers can take their students to teach "interactively".
Maybe I should have mentioned I'm referring to a private school, not a public school with the teachers union involved to the point that tenured teachers will walk out of meetings if they run one minute over of their "necessary time" to be involved in their profession.
Last edited by Informed Info; 11-02-2014 at 09:08 PM..
Don't teacher's "monitor" lunch periods, recess, study halls? What's the difference? You can email a parent from a hallway just as well as you can from the lounge or your empty classroom.
We don't monitor lunch, recess, or study hall. We only have a maximum of 90-120 minutes of time per week that we aren't in class or meetings, so there wouldn't be much time to monitor such settings even if we were required to do so.
Emailing a parent from the hallway is certainly possible, but challenging when we often need to have work samples, grade books, contact logs, and other such materials spread out on our desks while emailing. That would be more difficult to do from the hallway unless we hauled a ton of stuff out into the hall and then back into the classroom again.
We do occasionally have to monitor dismissal, which is done in between students leaving our classrooms and our afterschool meetings or afterschool remediation sessions. We are also supposed to monitor halls between classes, but that's not always possible when the groups of kids overlap (kids for the next period are coming in before kids from the previous period have left), and kids from both classes have questions/requests. We do our best, of course.
8th grade. Remember it well. A quiet red-haired gal sat two rows away from me, and one day at 11:50 she asked to leave for a bathroom break. The teach told her she could wait 10 minutes. She asked again but was told the same thing. About 2 minutes later a puddle formed under her desk. Teach was angry. So was I, at the teach. I hardly knew the young lady, but it was evident before the water started running that she needed to go.
I got an email from her a couple years ago, the first time I'd heard from her in 50 years. The first thing I thought of was that unfortunate day that was so embarrassing for her. I didn't know her well, but I know she was the gal who peed on the floor. I'd imagine I'm not the only one who remembers her for that.
Teachers, think about this before you withhold your hall passes.
I will call the parents if a particular student has to use the bathroom every day to find out if there is a medical reason. I do have kids who have unlimited passes because of medical reasons.
However, I have to ask, if you knew you'd have to go 30 minutes into class why didn't you empty your bladder before class to avoid the emergency? I'm a little more lenient with my class that is right after lunch but it's actually my last hour of the day I have the most problems with. If I did not have a one pass a week rule, I'd be issuing 50 passes a week in that class and that is excessive. If all my classes were like them, I'd do what other teachers have done and simply go to a no pass rule. Students have 5 minutes in between classes to use the bathroom and we are a very small school. They have to walk within 30 feet of a bathroom to get to my class. If they go before class there shouldn't be an emergency during class.
FTR, I have a medical condition that requires me to take diuretics. As a teacher I cannot take a pass during class. I have about two minutes from the time my last student clears the room to get to the bathroom after first hour (I have one student who is slow as a snail), use the bathroom and get back before my next class starts and I manage. I can count on one finger the times in 7 years that I've had to ask another teacher to watch my class while I used the bathroom and that was during a 3 hour block class and I was on my period. It is doable to go to the bathroom during passing time. What do you think teachers do? You just have to get your butt in gear and get to the bathroom instead of standing around the hall and talking to your friends. I cannot tell you how many times I've witnessed a student standing by their locker talking to their friends during the entire passing time who then rushes into my room while the bell is ringing and announces they have an emergency and need to use the bathroom. Seriously?
All students have to do is get themselves on a schedule like teachers do. Students in my school actually have more access to the bathroom than teachers do because they walk past them going from class to class and they CAN take a pass and leave class. The one person who cannot leave the room is the teacher. If I have a student who wants 5 more minutes to finish a test and I have to pee, I have to hold it until the next passing time. Yesterday I gave tests in 1st-3rd hours and did not get a bathroom break as a result. I just had to hold it. Teachers don't get passes. Teachers are not expecting anything of their students they are not doing themselves.
I would say it is NOT ok that you cannot use the bathroom when you need to. And the fact that you are doing this, or feel you have to, does not make it OK to do to the students. I'm also wondering why you think a certain number of passes a day - presumably for different students - is excessive. It's like saying, every single kid in the school has to pee during the day and that's excessive.
I would say it is NOT ok that you cannot use the bathroom when you need to. And the fact that you are doing this, or feel you have to, does not make it OK to do to the students. I'm also wondering why you think a certain number of passes a day - presumably for different students - is excessive. It's like saying, every single kid in the school has to pee during the day and that's excessive.
Because in K-12 schools the teacher is accountable for students, whether they are in their classroom or not. The principal who notices students out of a particular teacher's class too often will come down on that teacher. One would like to think that when students leave the classroom to go to the bathroom that the only thing they are doing is using the toilet to take care of bodily functions. Sadly, over the course of my career students at schools I have worked at (middle school, mind you) have done all the following when they were supposed to use the restroom: sexual intercourse, blow jobs (1 male/1 female more than once, 3 males once), sold drugs, smoked cigarettes, smoked weed, drank alcohol, sold alcohol, sold candy, videotaped each other, had a contest to see who could pee the highest up the wall, broke into lockers, beat the living crap out of another kid, called other students in classes, changed clothes, left the building, smeared poop on the walls, graffitied the walls, called in a bomb threat, and I'm sure there were more that I've forgotten. Sure the kids got in trouble for doing these things, but guess who else got in trouble.... The teacher whose class they were supposed to be in. One of the first questions out of the parent's mouth when they get the phone call is "Why weren't they in class?"
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We don't monitor lunch, recess, or study hall. We only have a maximum of 90-120 minutes of time per week that we aren't in class or meetings, so there wouldn't be much time to monitor such settings even if we were required to do so.
Emailing a parent from the hallway is certainly possible, but challenging when we often need to have work samples, grade books, contact logs, and other such materials spread out on our desks while emailing. That would be more difficult to do from the hallway unless we hauled a ton of stuff out into the hall and then back into the classroom again.
We do occasionally have to monitor dismissal, which is done in between students leaving our classrooms and our afterschool meetings or afterschool remediation sessions. We are also supposed to monitor halls between classes, but that's not always possible when the groups of kids overlap (kids for the next period are coming in before kids from the previous period have left), and kids from both classes have questions/requests. We do our best, of course.
I'm sure you (all) do.
I understand that it can be very difficult to have to wear 5 hats at one time, when that is NOT what is in your job description (or compensated for in a paycheck).
I would say it is NOT ok that you cannot use the bathroom when you need to. And the fact that you are doing this, or feel you have to, does not make it OK to do to the students. I'm also wondering why you think a certain number of passes a day - presumably for different students - is excessive. It's like saying, every single kid in the school has to pee during the day and that's excessive.
I teach high school. My students have 5 minutes of passing time between classes to pee and they can take two tardies in a class before a detention is assigned so I am not limiting their ability to pee. I'm limiting their ability to leave my class to one pass a week (there are teachers who allow no passes and I understand why. I've seriously considered it. One pass a week is a compromise.). I also limit when passes can be used to only during work time and then only if they are actually working. Interestingly, the students who ask to leave the most do the least work during work time.
Students are free to pee before school, during 7 passing times during the day, during lunch and after school. How much more peeing time do you think they need? Before you answer this consider that I am a teacher and I don't get bathroom passes. I have to make do with what I listed above. I can count on one finger the number of times I've had to ask another teacher to watch my class so I could use the bathroom and that was during a 3 hour block class and I was on my period.
The sad truth is that if I allow unlimited passes, which I have, I end up with 1/3 of my class having to use the bathroom every day in two of my classes (funny but the rest are fine and I don't police them nearly as much.). I teach kids in a 50 minute period. 5 minutes out of class is 10% of class time missed. If that time is during class discussion, it's more like 20% of the teaching time. If my kids only used the bathroom when they needed to, we would not have a problem.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 11-04-2014 at 04:33 AM..
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We only have a maximum of 90-120 minutes of time per week that we aren't in class or meetings, so there wouldn't be much time to monitor such settings even if we were required to do so. 
