First, make a healthy lunch at home. You can make it the night
before, or the whole week's worth on Sunday, or a month at a time, or
even randomly grab a container of leftovers from the fridge that
morning. But, no matter what, make sure you bring your lunch. You
have no hope of eating otherwise.
When the bell rings announcing that your hallway supervision time has
ended, you can finally, perhaps, just maybe sit down for a minute
with no students calling out your name. Make a break for it. Zip into
your classroom and turn off the light. Or go to the department
workroom to eat with other teachers. Or maybe even make your way to
the teachers' lounge to see teachers from other parts of the
building. (Just kidding. Who wants to sit with those whiners?)
If you need to warm your food, I hope you have a microwave in your
room. If not, prepare to spend time waiting and chit-chatting. Wonder
if maybe you should have risked running off for a fast-food lunch
just for the alone time in the car.
Now, whatever you do, do not, I repeat, DO NOT talk to any students.
If you talk to a student, it's over. Your lunch will grow cold, your
stomach will rumble, and your hope of any tiny respite of lunchtime
quiet is forever lost. Until tomorrow, anyway.
Some days, you may have asked a student to come sit in your room
during lunch. Perhaps he needs extra help on an assignment. Perhaps
she needs a little time to consider her classroom behavior. Perhaps
you have made the ultimate error and invited an entire club to use
your room for a meeting. Chatting, bubbling, negotiating, making
decisions, these students froth with a thousand ideas and a pinch of
“go-get-'em.” Have fun with that.
No, really. Have fun with that. Because your students are fun.
Really! They're energetic and creative and clever. Maybe, just maybe,
a quiet leisurely lunch is overrated. So enjoy your colleagues when
you're waiting in line for the microwave. Enjoy those students who
just have to tell you something. Right. Now. Enjoy that club meeting
that excruciatingly illustrates exactly how your students are
learning to govern themselves and become leaders. Enjoy it today, and
tomorrow, and every day. And snuffle that lunch down discreetly.
But take some time for yourself for your after-school snack. If you
can.
