seating charts

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Home : 2001 : December : 15

seating charts
By Nancy

Adam--I teach a lot in grades 7-9, and all the teacher's I sub. for leave seating charts for me, as it is required that I take attendance each period from those charts. I am expected to just run through the chart and write
down any names that are missing, but I always go seat by seat, call out a name and look at that student's face when they acknowledge their name. Imagine their horror when i look at row 2, seat 5 and say "Susie" and a young man is sitting in that particular seat. They always have an excuse, I don't buy it, and I give anyone who "may be in the wrong seat" 30 seconds to correct the transgression.

It seems that if I can bust one, they all come clean in the end. When you take role, look them in the eye, if they are really "Bobby" and you're looking at them saying, "Scott", they won't be able to look you square in the eye, because they're trying to pull one over one you. I've had to learn to be very observant to their actions and reactions. Kids this age are really into fairness, so if you only catch one of them in the wrong seat, they will rat out all of their buddies as well.

Furthermore, if they switch during class, you can always ask a random student in the class a question. If you look in the first row, 2nd seat and ask "Jan" to answer a question, and the person sitting in that seat doesn't look up or acknowledge the name, chances are, it isn't Jan... I'm not very forgiving when it comes to sitting in the correct seats. At this age, they know the rules, and they have to sit in that same seat every other day of their life. Shouldn't change when I'm in the room. If I have problems with it, they don't have a very fun day (I am more than capable of assigning LOTS of work if they try to "pull one over on the sub"--my favorites are esssays, due at the end of class--they don't know that their reg. teacher didn't assign it).

That said, it seems as though the students you sub. for are a little tougher than mine. I'm not sure that my experience will help at all, but it's a start. Good luck! Hope you get them under your thumb!