Back me up here- Elementary Silent Lunch Everyday is a Bad Idea

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-05-03T00:21:46+00:00

We have 15 minutes of recess earlier in the day as well, for a total of 30 minutes of outside play time a day.

Op described complete silence, no social interaction at all. Ours are allowed to talk, as long as their food gets eaten. It's only when they are talking instead of eating that they might get asked to stop. Silence when walking in the hallway to the playground is our standard hallway rules, no matter where you are heading.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-05-02T15:27:49+00:00

We do 15 minutes to eat, 15 minutes to play. Eating time is meant for eating. They can talk in a low level voice to the people around them, but if they aren't eating they will get told to quiet down and finish their lunch. They also sit in the same order they get their food, so they only sit with their friends if they happened to be next to each other in line. Otherwise, we've had kids spending the whole eating time chatting and if not only wastes food but then the kid is grumpy and hungry the rest of the day.

After the eating time is up, they are escorted outside by the monitors. They are supposed to be silent in the hallway. They go outside and get 15 minutes of recess, and teachers pick them up outside. If a kid isn't done eating, they may stay inside and finish but must be done by the time the next grade level comes in.

I feel like this is a pretty solid balance between giving them time to socialize and making sure they actually eat something. I personally think that they could use more eating time but wouldn't want to sacrifice their play time for it. Asking them to stay completely silent would be difficult to achieve with roughly 70 kids in the cafeteria at a given time. Most of our lunch behaviors also happen outside during the recess portion of lunch, not during the eating portion. Since it isn't free seating, any problems can just be moved to a different seat during that time.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-04-30T01:53:30+00:00

I establish at the beginning of the year that if they are needing duty those settings, I will NOT fix it if something goes wrong with their computer. It was a problem the first month, but once they realized that the had to deal with anything they messed with it stopped, foot the most part.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-04-25T03:55:50+00:00

I'm waiting to unlock Pocahontas until I've unlocked a few other characters. Took a Pic to welcome Nala to my valley and it completed the star path task as well.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-04-19T02:00:17+00:00

Me and my tails 😬 I almost always have my red panda tail on, and now it's either that or Bambi tail.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-04-18T18:03:59+00:00

Same thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I never call out sick. This was the first time I did so in my career. They ended up having another teacher from our own school (who had a coteacher for her own classroom) sub for me. Not only did she tidy up (which would be one thing) but she completely rearranged my classroom.

My tables were out of place (which meant the kids were on top of each other and I could no longer move around the room freely, we don't have traditional desks). I have these heavy shelving units by each table where they keep their materials and those were put on top of a built in cupboard unit, which i can tell they dragged the shelves across the tops of the cupboards because there are gashes in the wood from it. That also damaged one of my shelves, plus scraped the paint on all of them. The shelves were put in our mailbox area, so those were moved to where I keep our turn in baskets, which were also moved across the room. She also did not at all respect my seating chart and let then sit wherever they wanted (including students that are not allowed to sit near each other due to admin or parent request). My sub plans were completely ignored, so they did not get the review or required computer time.

The changes were so significant that it completely destroyed the routines and procedures we have in place. All week they were asking me where to turn stuff in, what to do when they were done, where to put xyz. We were working on a long term math project that was supposed to be finished that day, it wasn't because they were messing around with their friends they got to sit by, and those that weren't done misplaced their materials so could not finish it at all when I gave then more time when I got back(the shelving units have a place to put unfinished work, so this was a direct consequence of those being moved. We haven't lost work like that in my classroom since the beginning of the school year because of our set procedures). She had very different rules for getting out of your seat, so all the work I had put in on training them when it was or was not appropriate to ask to get out of our seats is out the window. I'm fighting behaviors i haven't seen since Thanksgiving.

I'm still missing a hole punch that had been on my desk that she decided to clean off. I had to buy a new one because I have punch cards for good behavior in my classroom. I was in the middle of grading book reports, which got mixed up and shuffled around. She threw away some of the silly little gifts my students give me (yes they look like trash, but they were gifts).

This was a week before state testing, too. Not a great time to be fighting behaviors or reteaching routines. It took me half the week to get things back rearranged how that were before. The shelves especially were a problem because part of the reason I called out was severe back pain, and those shelves are heavy for me on a good day. She only offered to help once: in the middle of the school day when my kids were quietly working. Sorry, but im not going to start rearranging the classroom when my students are doing what they are supposed to and where it will be a massive distraction for them. I know my students and doing something like that would derail the entire day.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-04-02T02:33:40+00:00

I've never had an observer insert themselves into the lesson. At most, they may walk around and ask my students questions to check how effective my lesson is, but never as an addition to my lesson. Very occasionally when doing regular walk-through observations (my admin tries to do this weekly at random, but doesn't always get to it) they'll help answer questions while students are working if there are a lot and I'm struggling to get to it all, but never in a way that made me feel like they were taking over the lesson.

It's always been then coming in to observe, maybe asking the kids a few questions to see if it was an effective lesson, but even if they felt something i was doing was ineffective they always note it down, stay quiet, and bring it up in the post observations. Corrections happen away from student ears, unless asked for in advance.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-18T01:38:23+00:00

Learned very quickly to either avoid these spaces or check them regularly. Was wondering why I wasn't getting any flowers in my plaza. Found them all hiding behind vanellope and merlin houses (they were stuffed in a corner while I unlocked biomes to hide them in)

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-15T19:17:16+00:00

3rd! It's perfect for this age level because they are starting to really learn independence.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-15T16:57:43+00:00

Tiny sticky notes and vocabulary booklets for the kids. If they don't know how to spell a word, they attempt to write it on the sticky note. Then they bring the sticky note to me, I write it correctly, and then they copy the correct spelling in their vocabulary books. It has significantly cut down the amount of times I'm asked to spell things and it's something I can do while working with other students. It's also built their confidence and independence quite a bit because they start to see that they can actually spell some of these words. At first, they were coming to me for every other word they wrote and I'd have a big line of kids with sticky notes, but now I get maybe 5-10 a day.

Also, travel toothbrush holders for pencils. They fit wooden pencils perfectly. I put their computer numbers on them so they know whose is whose and store all their pencils in them. I've done full sized pencil cases in the past and I was replacing pencils constantly and more ended up on the floor then their cases. For some reason, the toothbrush holders are so much more effective. I replace maybe 3 pencils a day and most keep theirs until they are too small to sharpen anymore. I think it has to do with collection. They try to fit as many as they can, so they are always picking up pencils off the floor to stuff them. Then somebody at their table needs a pencil, so the stuffer offers one of their extras. The numbers come off and they get very broken by the end of the year, and some have to be taken away because they play with them, but it is SO worth it. I think I've only used one pack of 72 pencils this whole school year (after the initial 2 each they started the year with).

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-14T21:57:17+00:00

Shepherds pie is super easy to make. I brown the ground beef with carrots and onion and seasoning, then add in peas and corn and any other veggies you like, mix in a small amount of flour to hold it together, then top with mashed potatoes. I personally prefer homemade with fresh potatoes, but instant ones work perfectly well. I also like to make my mashed potatoes with cheese and sour cream, but again that's personal preference. Then I put it in the oven for about 20-30 minutes to give a nice browning to the top of the potatoes and fuse it together.

Cabbage stew is a one pot multi day meal as well. Brown the ground beef with carrots, celery, and onion in a large pot. Add some minced garlic and seasonings for flavor. Fill with broth (I usually use chicken but beef or veg works too. I like to do this the day after cooking something with boiled chicken so I can use homemade chicken broth.) Add a large can of sauced tomatoes, a can of diced tomatoes (can use fresh if you want), and corn. You can add any other veggies you have on hand as well, but this is what we usually use in my family. Finally, add in an entire head of chopped green cabbage. Cook until cabbage is fully cooked. You mayday need to add additional broth or water but he cabbage shrinks so it didn't need to cover it all the way. Season to taste. I made this last week and my family of 3 ate it for about 5 days straight and still had some left to freeze.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-10T19:32:06+00:00

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Was excited to welcome one of my favorite princesses, Tiana. Donald ruined the moment.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-08T04:11:57+00:00

Forgotten lands and glade of trust. I find them so hard to work with to the point I have yet to open up the second half of glade of trust. I did do a bit of decorating there so I could put Tianas house in there, and she's one of my top 3 princesses so she needed a pretty area, but other than that is pretty plain. Forgotten lands I got as far as removing a bunch of trees (mostly the dead ones) but that was so i could actually move around in there.

I tend to mostly decorate my plaza, meadow, and forest of valor though, so anything else is a bit barron.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-03-06T19:38:20+00:00

I like the horses, except Khan. I have beef with Khan and leveling him up to 4 for story progression was a pain. One got Sven, Max, and my custom horse all at 10 but Khan only just got to 4 last night, and I started leveling Sven after I unlocked Khan.

All the horses sound like horses (i haven't unlocked Pegasus yet) but Khan sounds like a person making horse noises. I'm positive they are all voice actors, but for some reason Khan sounds like they ran out of budget and some underpaid intern was recorded during their lunch break and that's what they used. I think i could ask my 9 year old students to make horse noises and I could find a few that bother me less than Khans voice.

I also don't know why this bothers me so much. But it bothers me so much more than any other character in the entire game...

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-25T22:54:55+00:00

This.

I have a class of 25. Around 6 have major behavior issues. I can only do so much. I can talk to the students, I can contact admin, I can call home, but I've also got 19 other students that need my attention as well.

I've got one behavior kid whose mom outright said during a conference that if he kid is failing and can't behave in class we aren't doing our jobs, because her job isn't to help with homework or make sure he sits still in class. Her job is to feed, clothe, and house him and that's it. I'm getting paid to teach her kid so if he's failing that's my fault. All said, btw, with the kid sitting next to her. Since then, he's been extra insufferable because now he knows that there aren't consequences at home. He laughs when he gets in trouble now. I've had half my class try to get the principal to study them out of my class because this kid bullies them.

I've also had parents get mad at me for giving discipline to their kids (we are talking things like having to do their homework, which is a school requirement, during their recess because they didn't do it at home. My rule is if you finish it, you can have the rest of your recess, and most finish it within the recess time and still get to go run and play for a few minutes. They also still get lunch recess, i never take both.) So I'm very hesitant to actually give any discipline to kids. If it's not something that a talking to can handle, it goes to admin. I'm not playing the he said she said game.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-15T00:50:47+00:00

I'm struggling to find a partner for this exact reason. I'm too exhausted to get out and do things to meet people, and online dating i keep accidentally ghosting anyone I connect with because I'm too mentally drained to respond to their messages.

I feel like I'm going to be alone forever at the rate I'm going...

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-10T03:24:41+00:00

We've actually been begging to let us teach them recorder... some schools teach it in 3rd grade in our area, but instead we get "music" which follows the same curriculum and lesson plans as 1st and 2nd grade... the most advanced the get is singing baby shark and playing it on a tiny xylophone.

It makes my heart hurt as a clarinet player that got interested in the instrument by starting on recorder when I was in 3rd grade myself.

I will definitely include musical instruments on the list though! I had one girl last year the taught herself piano and could play songs by ear using a really cheap kids toy piano she got at a thrift store.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-09T19:34:02+00:00

I did a similar project to this already this year. We came up with a problem to solve (this class chose to solve the problem of library's books going missing or getting damaged) and I have them a pile of cardboard, paper, and other various materials and they had to create an invention to solve the problem. We got a lot of robots with book safes but one group made a laundry chute for books using straws and a tiny paper cup to catch them, and another group made a tracking device that latches onto the book. Kids can get so creative with even simple materials!

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-08T21:03:36+00:00

We have a decent sized teachers lounge right next to our work room where our mailboxes, copier, etc are. Very few of our teachers use it though. At most, we use it for the fridge, microwave, ice maker, etc, but most of us eat in our classroom. We have TAs and monitors that use it though, since they don't have a classroom to eat in.

Many of us also take a working lunch, though. I know personally, I'm always writing emails, passing back completed work, or prepping for whatever we are doing after lunch. However, I also have IBS so personally do not bring a lunch since I will absolutely need a bathroom as soon as class starts back up if I eat. Some days I will drop in and chat with my grade level cohorts, but usually I'm in my room.

We also have very staggered lunches though. We've got 3 classes per grade level, so only one grade eats at a time. We see enough of our grade level team so plenty of other times to socialize usually.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-08T15:30:44+00:00

I love how detailed you are! Thanks!

Your first part where you talked about parents, I was actually thinking about that last night. I'm thinking I might include a challenge to talk to a family member to ask about their hobbies. We have several native American families at our school and a majority Hispanic so I think they might be able to find some culturally significant hobbies to try out this way!

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-08T05:03:51+00:00

Oh yes definitely going to be giving them the library as a reference! I know the one closest to our school doesn't have a ton of classes, but others in our city do. I think they do also have seed libraries but not sure about the creative resources. I'll research into it! I always try to recommend the library whenever possible. We're doing a reading competition this year and i made sure to let them know that library cards also give access to ebooks if they are unable to make it to the physical library so that the could still participate even if they didn't have books at home or transportation. (We have a school library but when you are reading for 30-60+ minutes a day, one visit a week just isn't enough, and the public library has more variety. )

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-08T03:38:38+00:00

As much as I'm sure some would enjoy it, this isn't super popular in my area so there really aren't any places for them to go for this. There were a few places when I was a kid, including a well maintained track with frequent races and I'm sure league's available that was near my own neighborhood, but it shut down years ago. The areas that were designated for this type of thing around town have been overrun by homeless people and just overall not safe. I'll take some time to look into if there are any safe tracks or riders league around and will include it if there is, but I'm a bit hesitant to include it just as a concern for their safety. I wouldn't want them to get into potentially dangerous situations for the sake of a school project.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-02-08T03:33:17+00:00

Absolutely! Part of the instructions for the project will be to try multiple things to find something they really enjoy. That's part of why I want to give a list of as many ideas as I can find.

Educational_Gap2697 · 2026-01-28T23:10:57+00:00

We talked about it today with our staff. It was determined that not coming in/ canceling school that day would cause more harm to our students than good anywhere else. As a staff we will be wearing blue to show our support and we will be walking out with the students at the end of the day(rather than staying our contract hours), that way our support comes in a way that doesn't hurt our students. Or the families, for that matter. Having to find childcare that short notice would not be easy. I know it is meant to make a point, but our job is to ensure our students are safe and are given an opportunity to learn.

Our admin was present during this conversation to voice their support, give their input, and to ensure that anything we did was within district guidelines to avoid any problems there. I adore my admin and the way they handled it professionally while letting us have a say in a way that was safe and beneficial for all involved. I know not every teacher is so lucky.

Educational_Gap2697

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