Fall '08 October Blog #1: Controlling Hallway Chaos

Ah, the sound of changing classes-yelling, pushing, screaming, cursing, play fighting with “my cousin”, and shoving. Yes, the hall can get pretty loud and chaotic at times, but you can handle it! My door is next to bridge way between the Vocational building and the High School. With that in mind, I see a lot of traffic. My hall is supposed to be a ninth grade hall; however upperclassmen (mostly 10th graders) love to come and see their friends whom they left at the junior high the previous year.

Anytime you have teenagers all bunched up together in a space, you WILL have noise. The point is to control that noise/chaos whenever you can. I have found that the best way to handle this situation is to be outside your door during class change. I didn’t believe that this would actually make a difference when I first began teaching, but now I see the beauty in it. Most of the time your presence alone will cause a student not to behave too unruly; yet, sometimes, your presence is not enough. I never thought that I would be that teacher. You know the lame one who stands outside and squawks, “Go to class,” repeatedly. However, I have evolved into her. (I would like to put in a side note and say thank you Mrs. Hosey, my 1st great mentor teacher, who I took this technique from. Mrs. Hosey and I disagreed on a lot of things, but I learned a lot from her. The hallway monitoring what just something I observed on the side. The kids grumbled when she did it, but they did move along to class.

The way I get students to clear out the hallway is to stand outside my door and squawk "Go to class! Go to class!" If the students are in conversation, I usually point out mine and tell them to get to class. The ones I don't know-I stand in the middle of their conversation until they realize that they don't want to talk around me, and then they move. Believe it not the things that I do work! When I come out of my room some kids sigh and begin moving along. I believe once you set yourself up to be that person who tells them to move- they will either move as soon as they see you coming towards them or they will find somewhere else to carry on their conversations! Also, having other teachers get on board with standing outside their door will decrease the chaos in the hallway.

On a side note.
The standing in the hallway does NOT work during the lunch period. The majority of the hall has 1st lunch and only 2 classes on the hall, mine included, have last lunch. When the 1st lunch students come back from lunch, it is complete chaos. The biggest problem that I am observing is that their teachers are either not there with them or are not watching them. My students get upset, because the noise disrupts our learning environment. I can’t stand outside and direct traffic then, because I have a class that I cannot leave. This is an increasing problem for me. I spoke to the principal earlier about the lunch arrangement. My plan is to re-discuss this with him later this week. Wish me luck.