And inadequate bathroom time can be particularly strenuous for pregnant teachers. Given that roughly three-fourths of teachers are females , and that close to half are under age 40, a significant percentage of classroom educators have likely been subject to that extra strain. Teachers can easily end up compromising their health by avoiding hydration—important, of course, for keeping energized, focused, and headache-free—to cope with the limited restroom time.
If I do have to go, I hold it by focusing on something else and walking around class. That seems to help me. After all, elementary-school teachers responding to the AFT survey were 26 percent less likely than their high-school counterparts to report having an adequate number of bathroom breaks, which makes sense considering the constant attention younger children need.
She told me to call the office because teachers are not allowed to step out of their classrooms, not even to go into the hallway. In this case, to "keep an eye on" a neighboring class. She said that teachers may loose [sic] their license if they are caught doing this …. However, they may have had little previous formal schooling or come with widely divergent notions of what is appropriate classroom behavior. The other extreme of this situation is the student who pauses outside the door, waiting for the teacher to give permission to enter, when arriving late.
The question then becomes which behaviors are most important to teach for the classroom , how to teach students methods to politely interrupt , and for the teacher to manage the interruptions in her class.
Every teacher is different; every classroom is different. Some teachers are bothered by students getting up to go to the restroom during class; others are not so bothered by it but are driven crazy by cell phones going off. In the beginning, especially, expect there to be some challenging or misunderstanding of the expectations.
Students may not have fully understood your rules, or they are so used to lack of rules in their other classrooms that they will continue to blithely receive calls during class or get up to leave during the lecture.
Usually all that is required is for the teacher to remind the class in general of the expectations. Sometimes discussing the reason for the expectation also helps: so that we can concentrate on our studies, so that students can hear my lecture without confusion, and so forth.
Sometimes most of the interruptions come in the form of one student. What to do about this kind of student? This rarely extinguishes the behavior on other occasions, however. I have found it helpful to meet with this student after class or during break to give additional attention because often the behavior results from some insecurity in the student —feeling older, or poorer, not as intelligent, etc.
If the instructor shows some positive attention and individual support of the student, the interruptions may diminish.
The amount of detail you will need to include during your bathroom discussions will depend on the age of your students. I only spend two minutes on this with my third graders, and ask them to provide the majority of information: What do you do when you close the bathroom door behind you? Use the toilet. Nothing else. No playing around. How much toilet paper should you use?
About four squares. What do you do after you finish using the toilet? The after-bathroom and sink procedures will need to be spelled out in a little more detail. Now what? For management purposes, during guided practice you may want to have students just mime the action at their seats. Once the class is settled into an independent activity, you can call them by groups to practice hand washing. If kids laugh or get embarrassed during the discussion, stay nonchalant and tell them that the things you are talking about are not funny, dirty, or bad.
Not having a toilet in your classroom can actually be a good thing! I had gang bathrooms for two years and took my third graders as a class three times per day. If there was an emergency, students were allowed to go at other times, but I really stressed the importance of going with the group.
You will need to teach students how to use the bathroom appropriately, as described previously toilet paper usage, flushing, washing hands. Then you can explain procedures for using gang bathrooms.
Be specific about inappropriate behaviors that will not be tolerated, e. Be quite firm in your discussion about these actions. Explain what the bathroom monitor will do and what you expect from students in the hall.
Use reinforcement narration and performance feedback as students practice. Your routines for getting drinks will depend on whether you have a water fountain in the classroom or need to use one in the hallway. For both scenarios, I highly recommend training a Drink Monitor who can assist you in keeping the class orderly while they get drinks. The monitor can count slowly to five while kids get drinks, and make sure no one is splashing. If your water fountain is built into a sink in the classroom, train students to get drinks at specified times of the day.
I allow my students to get drinks without permission during Morning Work, right before specials and lunch, and after health which is usually recess. There is a sign posted by the water fountain in case anyone forgets when they are allowed to drink. Students can get drinks freely at the posted times, except after recess when I know almost everyone will want water I have students go to their seats when they enter the room and take out their writing journals, then get called by teams to get drinks.
If students ask to get a drink during other times of the day, I always say no unless they are coughing or have the hiccups. In my experience, if you have pity on a thirsty child one time, you will end up with the entire class asking you daily to let them make a trip to the water fountain!
The drink monitor can help keep things calm. A fun way to keep kids from getting too carried away while waiting in a long line for a drink is to have each child answer a math fact. Go right down the line, and as soon as a child answers, he can get a drink. Afterwards, the child should go to the end of the line.
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