Lunch duty is my least favorite duty (although I'd rather do lunch duty than gym duty for 30 minutes before school starts). My station is near the restrooms in the cafeteria. Another staff member is there (the baseball coach) so at least one of us needs to be near the restrooms at all times. We chat, or take turns "standing guard". Otherwise I walk around and talk to students. And I ALWAYS take note of what the students are eating. It's not good. There are a couple of boys whose lunch everyday consists of 2 orders of french fries, a jumbo Snickers bar and 2 Mt. Dews (one for lunch, one to drink on their way to class!).
I tease them a bit. "Where's your green vegetables? That's not a lunch! What would your grandma say if she saw you eating that?" Or, "I'll give you $5 if you eat a lunch I bring you tomorrow!, How about $10?"
They just laugh at me, but part of me is not kidding. I wonder if thier parents know? The worst part? After eating all that junk, these kids are supposed to go to class and learn...
Cardinal rule of thumb: the class you teach immediately after lunch will be your worst class of the day. Most definitely! There's nothing like a bunch of 15-16 year olds after they've had two plates of french fries, a jumbo Snickers and two Mt. Dews...
4 comments:
I graduated high school 8 years ago and the pop and vending machines were always turned off during the school day. You were not allowed to drink pop during the school day period. You couldn't even bring one from home. The usual cafeteria food was served, though; fries, pizza, burgers, etc. but there was always a representation of all food groups (including ice cream, dill pickles, reuben sandwiches). There was quite a variety.
I always brought my lunch when I was a student. It wasn't until I began teaching did I actually buy lunch at school, it's easy, affordable and usually you're so busy, it works out, but it's not always the best nutrition on the block. I think schools are getting better about these things, but at the same time, junk food is a money maker. I heard once that the vending machines outside the locker rooms bring in about $7,000 a month. That's income the athletic department depends on (sad, in my opinion). Sometimes those in my department, we will take turns bringing in lunch and that's always nice; for a while we did that all the time, so I only had to bring in lunch one day a week.
Your pictures are making me hungry by the way.
By the way, I just heard on the news that today is National Teacher Day...so "thank you" for a job well-done.
http://www.nea.org/teacherday/index.html
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