I did this for 3 years and loved it!!!

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Home : 2007 : April : 3

I did this for 3 years and loved it!!!
By lynn

I have been teaching at a charter school for the last four years and we do not have a cafeteria and therefore we can pick our own lunch time and we have a lot of say in our recess time as well. We try to keep older kids
and younger kids at seperate times for recess due to safety issues. Up until this year I have had my assistant take the kids out for recess for 30 minutes while I caught up on any morning stuff (phone calls, notes, etc.) and then I did heat-ups (students may bring an item to be warmed up in the microwave, I limit my students to twice a week with a heat up time of 90 sec. or less) and brought

hot lunches/catered lunches (we order from various vendors in the community; pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, etc.) back to the room. The kids came in from recess, stopped by the bathroom, and then ate. I ate while they are and reviewed my afternoon plans. It was a nice break for the kids mid-day and gave them 60 minutes to refuel for the afternoon. This year we had to have recess after lunch due to schedules. It has been tough since there are always playground issues and kids who felt fine outside, but are not feeling well as soon as we come back in and have to work. I spend lunch time heating lunches and handling morning stuff. By the time they go outside I end up with a few minutes to eat and try to review plans for the afternoon. I don't feel like I have as much time and that we lose more teaching time. I am hoping to switch back to the old schedule next year.