LUNCH MONITORING

Do you feel that at school once lunch is around you feel useless and bored?! Well did you know that at your school, if you want to take responsibility at lunch, you can monitor one of the younger students? At my school, I have been doing this for almost three years. I really enjoy it because I have always liked being a role model to kids younger than me, and it is a responsibility that makes me feel great. Also, in a year or so, I would love to be a babysitter! It has been my lifelong dream to be trusted to take care of kids. Lunch monitoring is actually a great experience for me. I also want to be a parent when I grow up, so this experience may come handy in the future. Anyway, the way it works is that if you monitor Grade 1-3, you are left alone to make sure the kids eat their lunch and not be silly or loud. Another fun thing is that you can play games with the kids on a good day. You can also monitor kindergarten with help from adults. You also get a peek at other people’s lunches, yum!

To lunch monitor you have to have to have five main things, control (over kids), patience, responsibility, positivity, and a lunch! Some people find it very stressful, overwhelming, or just plain boring! In fact, in all the years I have been doing this, most of the guys do not take interest. But also some girls think that the kids will be too much work. The amount of people in my class who want to participate, are about 5-17 people. Half of the monitors quit by the end of the year. If it is your first time monitoring or it is too much for you, I think it is fine to POLITELY tell the teacher that you cannot monitor anymore. A guy at my school for example, did not want to monitor anymore but instead of confronting the teacher he just stopped showing up. This is not the right way to quit any job even as small as Lunch monitoring. People (like me) who stick with the job till the end, earn something big. Pride. Once you finish something you started, you feel really proud of yourselves. You will also feel accomplished because you controlled the kids and maybe encouraged some kids to do this to.

You are lying back at your desk with no kid daring to get out of their seat, the smell of yummy lunches including yours filling the air. Heaven. This is barely the case. I should know because I have done this along time. It can sometimes be so stressful, that you just want to yell at the top of your lungs. Sometimes kids do not listen and are all over the place. Here are some ways they can annoy you:

These things drive me crazy but I can handle it in many different ways. At school we are listening to a bullying presentation every week, and we recently talked about how to deal with a bullying situation. I figured it works with any situation that makes you feel mad. Here are 3 ways to respond to kids misbehaving:

In a passive situation, you just let the annoying kid be mischievous. Since you don’t let him know what he’s doing is wrong, he may keep being a troublemaker until the end of the year. This would haunt me for the rest of my youth. An aggressive response would be when you use your words or actions to hurt the annoying kids. No one (even someone who is annoying) deserves to be treated like that. Lunch monitoring earns you respect from kids, but you in return must treat them with respect. Think of God’s golden rule; Treat others the way you want to be treated. Aggressiveness is not okay because it does not solve the problem, it makes it worse. Assertive responses are the best. In a situation of a troublemaker, you have to let them know how you feel when they disobey you. You also have to speak clear (with eye contact) and tell them to stop what they are doing. If they ignore you, you need to tell a teacher in the hall. A teacher usually scares them off. Some situations are too big for a student. Remember: ASSERTIVE RESPONSES ARE RIGHT!!

Although there will not be a classroom that is 100% quiet, I think monitoring is a great experience. Maybe I should consider being a teacher! Lunch monitoring has been going on for years at my school. If you are interested in this job, you can talk to a teacher or the principal about starting. What is something that is unique about your school or job?