AuburnChick's Adventures

Once every nine weeks, each teacher in my school has a turn performing Lunchroom Duty.

What is this, you might ask?

Well, please allow me to explain.

See, this is what I like to call “Purgatory.”

Because I teach at a Muslim school, the students are separated by sex – females on one side of the lunchroom and males on the other side.

Each side is equipped with tables, chairs, refrigerators, and microwaves.

Thus, it is completely unnecessary for these students to intermingle.

Now, when the lunch bell rings, the students storm into the lunchroom…eager to warm up their lunches and let off some steam.

The girls are typical girls…immediately putting their heads close together to share the latest gossip.

The boys, on the hand, are quite different.

Do you think they stand calmly in line, waiting for the guy in front to finish heating up his food?

Oh no.

They run to the microwave, pound the button to open the door, and add their food to what’s already in there.  Then, they violently punch the numbers to add more time to the clock.

On Monday, I was completely unaware of this “routine,” so when I entered the room, I was shocked to find five layers of stacked food…all cold.  You see, it’s impossible to warm up anything with the door opening and closing twenty times a minute.

The boys were shoving each other out of line and, basically, acting like buffoons.

Being the mean AuburnChick that I am, I immediately took control of the situation, directing all but the first boy waiting to sit down.

They glared at me.

I did not care.

I am the Great AuburnChick…enforcer of lunchroom rules.

I “encouraged” the boys to wait their turns.

They weren’t happy.

I had invaded their space…a space where the little imps run the Purgatory (or so they think) and where their jobs are to annoy the teacher standing on duty, thus forcing said teacher to leave the room, allowing said students to go crazy.

I wasn’t buying what they were selling.

I stayed put.

As I stood near the boys’ tables (the girls didn’t need such close supervision), I observed an interesting phenomenon.

The boys’ side of the room was LOUD.

The girls’ side was somewhat muted.

The boys were grabbing food from each others’ sacks and stuffing their mouths before the original owners of said food could utter a word.

Then, as they began yelling to the person next to them (is this really necessary?), they spit cracker crumbs and sandwich pieces all over each other and the table.

N-A-S-T-Y.

The boys, you see, are always in a hurry to finish eating.

Why?

Because a huge, green field awaits their arrival.

They want to play soccer.

And so they exit, leaving trash in their wake.

This is true Purgatory for an organized person like me (you remember what my classroom looks like).

Being a quick study, I was ready for them on Tuesday, and I stood sentinel by the door, refusing to allow them to leave until they had cleaned up after themselves.

Oy, the joy.

Lunchroom Purgatory – It’s not for the faint of heart or those who want to be able to hear at 100% capacity for very long.

Thankfully, my penance is over.

Until the next term.

Filed under: Teaching | Tagged: teaching |