Lunch

When on lunch duty, you should be in the cafeteria or classroom throughout the grade’s lunch period.  Ideally, faculty lunch proctors should eat their own lunch prior to or after lunch duty. While on duty, it is your responsibility to ensure that the norms for student behavior during lunch are being met.   This will require you to monitor student arrival to the lunchroom, provide the occasional glance or quiet verbal redirection, or stroll around the lunchroom. If a student’s behavior is at odds with the norms, there should be an immediate logical consequence. On days when dessert is served, students should clean up the table before getting dessert.

Recess

Middle School students have recess at the Houston Street ball field, which is located at the corner of Houston Street and Sixth Avenue.  There is a locker with recess equipment at the end of the hallway by the art room. Students who take equipment are responsible for returning the equipment to the locker.

A bin with games for indoor recess (in inclement weather) is located in room m107, though classrooms may  have their own supply. All students are expected to go to recess and are not permitted to stay in simply because they’d rather not go out (e.g., “It is too cold.”). A student may stay in from recess to complete work only if s/he has permission from her/his teacher and is going to be monitored by a teacher (ideally this should be the teacher who is giving permission).  Teachers/advisors should monitor to make sure that a student is not regularly trying to miss recess. In general, recess should also not be used as an alternate IWP period.

Recess Responsibilities:

  • Recess walkers should be on time for pick-ups and meet students in their classrooms/cafeteria and lead out through the stairs/lobby .
  • The group should walk along Sixth Avenue to the ball field.
  • Students who are disruptive when leaving the building or while making the walk to Houston Street should be asked to sit out recess. A “Behavioral Incident Notification” email should be completed.
  • You should keep an eye on all activities during the recess period.  This can be difficult as the students may spread out. Recess duty is not a time to check email, send texts, or make phone calls. Your full attention is required.
  • Students need to be sure that they do not interfere with the activities of others using the playground.
  • Students should not leave bags, coats, etc., unattended.  These items may be left with you.
  • Students should not follow a ball into the street.  You should get all balls that roll out of the gate.
  • Recess is a screen-free time, whether indoor or outdoor. Students should not be using cell phones or chromebooks .
  • Students are not allowed to walk on their own to and from recess.
  • If a student needs to use the bathroom, a classmate should accompany them back to the building and should return with them.
  • If a student is injured and wants to visit the nurse, you should send that student to the nurse with another student. When you return from recess you should check-in with the nurse.
  • If a student is seriously injured you should send a student to the receptionist who will get assistance.
  • You should address any minor behavioral infractions that occur during recess and should send a “Behavioral Incident Notification” email for each infraction. For more significant incidents (e.g., fighting), the assistant principal or principal should be notified immediately.
  • When it is time to return to school, the students should line up inside the playground gate.
  • It is important that the students return all equipment so that other groups may use it.  Do not leave equipment outside if the next group is not there yet. Leave no equipment behind!
  • If new equipment is needed, tell students to ask their student reps, who will in turn discuss this with Margaret.

Walks

Faculty members will at some point (whether as an assigned duty or when helping a colleague) have to walk students to or back from PE at our gym at 145 Thompson Street. During these walks, safety is a primary consideration. The following guidelines are provided to ensure consistency with this duty:

  • As with recess walks, PE walkers should be on time for pick-ups.
  • Students should be picked up from their homerooms
  • For walk back, students should be picked up from the gym
  • Students should wait in a quiet and orderly fashion and should proceed quickly out of the building
  • Students should be reminded that people are working in the lobby
  • The group should follow the walking routes as outlined below
  • Students who are disruptive during the walk will be asked to sit out the gym period (if the disruption occurs during a walk back from PE, you should let their teacher know that the student should miss their next PE class). A “Behavioral Incident Notification” email should be sent.
  • Students need to walk between the buildings, and on trips, in a safe manner. They should be considerate of other pedestrians, walk no more than two abreast, keep up with the group (no more than a step or two behind the person in front of them).

Route to Thompson Street:

  • Turn left on Sixth Ave.
  • Turn left at Houston St.
  • Cross Houston St. at Thompson St.
  • Make sure students enter the building quietly

Independent Work Period

These periods are a time for students to complete homework assignments and group projects and to get help from teachers. Teachers are all expected to be available and accessible during this time. Teachers may request for particular students to come see them and/or use the time for ‘drop in’s. Movement between different classrooms is more regulated with the fifth and sixth graders than the seventh and eighth and their advisors may give them “in-class” IWP, when they are not allowed to leave except with the specific invitation of a teacher. Students may not be in unsupervised spaces during IWP.  Students may choose to use the Learning Lab during IWP. IWP may not be used as an extension of class time – to finish lessons or assessments.

Middle School Meeting

Middle School Meeting is a time for the whole division to come together for announcements, performances, and discussion.  The eighth grade student representatives lead these meetings.  Each teacher is strongly encouraged to have their students share work/projects at least once each year. A calendar of what is scheduled for Middle School meeting is posted on the Monday Memo. Please let Nathan know when you would like your students to present at Middle School Meeting.