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Home : 2004 : March : 20

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By KT

Our school in CA has noon duty aides and the teachers take all the other duties. Our contract gives us a 30 min. duty free lunch. However, our students are taught to respect the noon duty personnel as they would a teacher
and we are available if we are needed for an uncooperative student. The basic philosophy at our school is that we are ALL responsible for ALL of the children and respond to any of them that need to be addressed for behavior etc. Our main consequence is to sit out of play time for inappropriate behavior. Also, we have a positive note any yard duty person can hand to a child who is caught

doing a good deed, exceptionally polite or using good manners etc. We really try to give many of these early in the year. The kids put them in a bucket where once a week at lunch several are pulled out to receive a prize ( coupon to spend at the student store). We also give citations for inappropriate or dangerous behavior which results in a time out for the whole next lunch recess and must go home for a signature and a copy goes to the principal who also meets with the offending students. We really stress using Lifeskills (friendship, cooperation, teamwork, responsibility, etc) and teach them at the beginning of the year and reinforce all year through literature, discussions, etc. We have a few problems of course, but it generally works very well with the entire staff united. The behavior you describe should certainly not be tolerated. I agree that taking recesses would not solve the problem.