Short answer: That's impossible.8th graders find potty humor to be the height of comedic genius. (I mean, I do too. I don't teach middle school for nothin'.) However, requests for restroom and water fountain and "I just need a break" become time-eating distractions. So after mulling over how to limit hall passes without appearing to be "the man," I came to a choice between two systems - either a sheet of hall passes for each student or a sign-out system. While I like the idea of students keeping track of their own hall passes - a lesson in responsibility, a way to encourage limits - I felt like I would probably end up doing a lot more work in the long run. So, I went with the sign-out system: Hall Passes
Abuse of this privilege may lead to restrictions. And the policy as written worked ... for about a week. This experiment in freedom proved to be too much writing. Also, students were not aware enough of their surroundings to know (slash didn't care) whether or not someone else was already out of the room. SO, I made a permanent hall pass - because it's math class, the hall pass is a protractor. Since then dawn of the protractor, things have been better. Students are still asking permission - a harder habit to break than you might think. But we're getting closer to eliminating hall pass related distractions.
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AuthorI'm just a math teacher, trying to figure it out. Archives
December 2019
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