Assigned seats for elementary school lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I worked as a lunch helper at a public school with assigned seats. It doesn't mean that kids who are normally excluded are suddenly included. What happens is they are ignored at whatever table they are at (at best) OR they are ostracized and bullied when nobody is paying attention. I had no say in where the kids sat, but if I became aware of somebody being rude to any student, I came down hard on that student. Spoke to them privately, made them write their name down and gave it to the teacher and told the teacher to find out why this student wrote their name down. Then I watched those students more closely and made sure to engage the student who was bullied/picked on to make sure they were comfortable speaking up for themselves. I also let students who were good help me which they really enjoyed. The ones who seemed to have less friends, I'd let them choose a buddy to be their helper.

You are as rare as a unicorn, my friend. You sound like you were an awesome monitor. I think the reason we are moving to these draconian measures the the sad reality that in many, many instances the quality of lunch room monitor is very low. I've watched these employees. They have absolutely no skill in room management, working with kids, etc. They have one method of dealing with issues--yelling, followed swiftly by punishments that are placed on an entire table, regardless of what children might have actually been responsible for an infraction.

I know teachers need their own breaks and lunchtimes, but I think it would be so helpful if schools could find a way for the teachers and lunch monitors to meet and actually work together. I'm not saying every day or every week. Maybe just a few targeted meetings a year, where teachers could give lunch monitors a "heads up" about certain kids/behaviors to watch for.

I just feel that there are probably SOME kids that might need and assigned seat, or SOME kids that might need some more interventions, but as others have pointed out, the majority of kids just want to have some time to talk with there buddies, and I don't see why that should be a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Welcome to public school. In our FCPS school, we've had the friendless lunch strategy, followed by the silent lunch strategy. We switched to private, where people seem to understand that kids talking and having fun while they eat isn't the worst thing that ever happened.

Quite a few private schools do this too, although they spin in it is socially progressive (avoiding mean girl rep) or even academic (eat a a teacher's table) way, so it doesn't sound like social engineering.

[Anonymous]

I assign seats when they are doing more talking/goofing around than eating. Or when behavior other than talking warrants it. (Throwing things, etc.) If it's one kid in particular I have them sit beside me for a few days. Sometimes just spending time talking with them calms things down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our private school has assigned seating, rings a bell halfway through when they are allowed to chat, and otherwise keeps them settled down. This is lunch with ps3-K, though. I like it because DD needs to eat. She is such a slow eater, and would not eat if she could talk.

One private school we looked at seemed to do a really good job. They let the kids recess BEFORE lunch, then grouped the younger kids with older kids. And, they all ate family style. It was great.

That's absurd. The number one predictor of a preschooler's academic success is their oral language, and you develop it by talking. Why would you send your kid to school so their growth could be slowed down in this way. If they need more time to eat, then give them more time, especially in preschool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal recently decided to require teachers to develop assigned seating plans for lunch. The tables alternate boy/girl and it appears that children have been deliberately separated from their friends. Two grades have already been assigned and I'm wondering if the rest of the grades will follow. The kids were told that they are being too loud, and that is why they have gone to an assigned seating arrangement. Is this how lunch is done at other FCPS elementary schools--especially for the older children?

Is this at Colvin Run, by any chance? My DC goes there and the fourth grade (not sure about the other grades) has recently been seated as you described. But only the Gen Ed classes, not AAP, so that adds a whole additional layer of absurdity and unfairness. Why persist in punishing entire classes for the disruption of a few? My child has been miserable at lunch, unable to sit with friends and just relax for a short time. DH and I are ready to confront the administation over this.

You definitely should confront the administration. I feel like calling them myself and I'm not at Colvin Run. Many restaurants are very loud, I don't see why the cafeteria can't be loud. After a morning of learning, kids deserve a break to talk and laugh. At Forestville, they dim the lights and then someone tells them they are being loud and need to quiet down, and this seems to happen every time I've volunteered in the cafeteria, but I'm okay with this strategy.

I guess I just don't understand why. Why does lunch need to be quiet? Who is it hurting if they're loud?

It doesn't need to be quiet, but they do need to be able to hear me. There have been days they are so loud they didn't even hear the bell ring to end lunch.

[Anonymous]

I guess I just don't understand why. Why does lunch need to be quiet? Who is it hurting if they're loud?

Have you been in a school cafeteria when it is full of kids? It's pretty awful. They wouldn't institute silent lunch for no reason. It hurts the ears.

[Anonymous]

ours has a special allergy table, but that's it...

[Anonymous]

Also, since the schools are so crowded--remember every trailer means an extra lunch session--there really isn't time for the kids to chat. If they are chatting, they don't finish their lunches.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our principal recently decided to require teachers to develop assigned seating plans for lunch. The tables alternate boy/girl and it appears that children have been deliberately separated from their friends. Two grades have already been assigned and I'm wondering if the rest of the grades will follow. The kids were told that they are being too loud, and that is why they have gone to an assigned seating arrangement. Is this how lunch is done at other FCPS elementary schools--especially for the older children?

Is this at Colvin Run, by any chance? My DC goes there and the fourth grade (not sure about the other grades) has recently been seated as you described. But only the Gen Ed classes, not AAP, so that adds a whole additional layer of absurdity and unfairness. Why persist in punishing entire classes for the disruption of a few? My child has been miserable at lunch, unable to sit with friends and just relax for a short time. DH and I are ready to confront the administation over this.

You definitely should confront the administration. I feel like calling them myself and I'm not at Colvin Run. Many restaurants are very loud, I don't see why the cafeteria can't be loud. After a morning of learning, kids deserve a break to talk and laugh. At Forestville, they dim the lights and then someone tells them they are being loud and need to quiet down, and this seems to happen every time I've volunteered in the cafeteria, but I'm okay with this strategy.

I guess I just don't understand why. Why does lunch need to be quiet? Who is it hurting if they're loud?

It doesn't need to be quiet, but they do need to be able to hear me. There have been days they are so loud they didn't even hear the bell ring to end lunch.

I'm the former lunch helper that posted above. When I was working, the problem when it got to loud was that I couldn't hear a student speaking to me. I'd usually shut the lights out or ask a student to go shut them out for me, then I could tell the students to keep the noise level down. It did get loud, but I'm with the others who believe kids need to be allowed to talk and take a break during lunch. As long as they are behaving and being respectful, they should be allowed to talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I worked as a lunch helper at a public school with assigned seats. It doesn't mean that kids who are normally excluded are suddenly included. What happens is they are ignored at whatever table they are at (at best) OR they are ostracized and bullied when nobody is paying attention. I had no say in where the kids sat, but if I became aware of somebody being rude to any student, I came down hard on that student. Spoke to them privately, made them write their name down and gave it to the teacher and told the teacher to find out why this student wrote their name down. Then I watched those students more closely and made sure to engage the student who was bullied/picked on to make sure they were comfortable speaking up for themselves. I also let students who were good help me which they really enjoyed. The ones who seemed to have less friends, I'd let them choose a buddy to be their helper.

You are as rare as a unicorn, my friend. You sound like you were an awesome monitor. I think the reason we are moving to these draconian measures the the sad reality that in many, many instances the quality of lunch room monitor is very low. I've watched these employees. They have absolutely no skill in room management, working with kids, etc. They have one method of dealing with issues--yelling, followed swiftly by punishments that are placed on an entire table, regardless of what children might have actually been responsible for an infraction.

I know teachers need their own breaks and lunchtimes, but I think it would be so helpful if schools could find a way for the teachers and lunch monitors to meet and actually work together. I'm not saying every day or every week. Maybe just a few targeted meetings a year, where teachers could give lunch monitors a "heads up" about certain kids/behaviors to watch for.

I just feel that there are probably SOME kids that might need and assigned seat, or SOME kids that might need some more interventions, but as others have pointed out, the majority of kids just want to have some time to talk with there buddies, and I don't see why that should be a problem.

Thank you pp! I love working with kids and took great pride in my job, even though i was just a lunch lady lol. I had one other girl working with me and she had terrible classroom management skills. She yelled at students, punished, threatened, and had no sense of trying to understand the students point of view. She only seemed to care about asserting her authority over the students and nobody really respected her for it. She was also very inconsistent and inappropriate at times.

One of the problems with a job as a lunchroom monitor is that your hours are in the middle of the day when lunch is served. I worked for about 2.5 hours a day (small school). And the pay was less that $10 an hour, so for many people, it's not really worth it to work for so low and have your schedule disrupted for those hours. Another problem is the noise and behavior. A lot of people can't handle it and don't last long at the job.

There was no training required for my job, I only needed to pass a background check which I paid for out of pocket (which also might deter people from wanting this job!). The first couple weeks were really hard because the older kids were really mean to me and trying to put me to the test and see what they could get away with. My coworker told me I should yell and punish them to let them know I won't put up with it. And the younger kids all wanted to get my attention because I was new. But once I got to know the students it got a lot easier and I never resorted to yelling at anyone. The point is, if the lunch monitors had any training about classroom management and behavior intervention, it would probably help a lot. I'm naturally good with kids and I majored in elementary education in college, so I was better prepared than many others who would take a job like this.

And yes, some students would do better sitting in an assigned seat. They need more structure and we need to know where they are at all times so we can keep an eye on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:21 years teaching elementary in FCPS and we've never had assigned seats (other than certain tables per class).

I have 22 years. I've never experienced it either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, since the schools are so crowded--remember every trailer means an extra lunch session--there really isn't time for the kids to chat. If they are chatting, they don't finish their lunches.

I worked in a school that did this. Kids had exactly 20 minutes to get and eat their food, so keeping socialization to a minimum was very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, since the schools are so crowded--remember every trailer means an extra lunch session--there really isn't time for the kids to chat. If they are chatting, they don't finish their lunches.

I worked in a school that did this. Kids had exactly 20 minutes to get and eat their food, so keeping socialization to a minimum was very helpful.

Wow that's depressing

[Anonymous]

I didn't believe my kid when he told me he wasn't allowed to talk to his friends at lunch. So I said something to a neighbor about this wacky thing my kids said. She told me that wasn't the half of it. She had lunch in the middle of a regular week with her daughter. She said that the monitors blow whistles to shush the kids. Now whenever I think of my kid's cafeteria I picture a scene from Oliver Twist.

[Anonymous]

thats good! I very so agree!!

Anonymous wrote:Yes we should, not only will school bullying happen, but people may feel left out because of cliques and groups. I do have mixed feelings about it though because it may be their only free time to eat and enjoy. But still people shouldn't feel left out thats why im neutral about this!