What do students do during rainy day schedule? Do they stay in their classrooms and get supervised by yard duty personnel or does everyone stay in a designated area (such as the gym/auditorium). I heard that another site had a grievance sent to the teachers' union about students being in classrooms before school. Teachers have their prep time before school; therefore, kiddos are in there with them when it's raining. What's the protocol at your site? The union rep at my site approached me about this concern and I'm going to bring it to my principal's attention, but I want to offer suggestions to him.
We combine classes, so one teacher has 60 kids while the other has lunch, then they switch. It has not happened this year though.
Our kids stay in their classrooms and the teachers who would be on supervision duty in the yard walk between the classes. The kindergarten classes, as well as grades 1-3 all have older students assigned to help with the students in those rooms.
When we have days where we can't go outside for whatever reason we have done several things and it depends on the grade level as well. When I taught first grade we would divide and conquer. One of us would have the boys and the other would have the girls and we would watch a video. I would put on a Magic School Bus Video others would put on what ever. Now I'm in kinder and we do have a different principal. She came up with the kids going to the gym and doing Zumba. She has a GoNoodle account and plays the brain break on the wall.
Thankfully, we have lunch aides that supervise the kids at recess. When they can't go out for weather or whatever reason, they stay inside and watch a movie. They also have the option of reading a book or doing homework.
Nothing different, for the most part. My kids can line up on the inside of the courtyard since right outside the courtyard is no overhang, but recess is still on, just no field usage.
In my old school, 4th-5th-6th had recess together (K-3 at a separate time). On days we couldn't go outside, we would use our 3 rooms (small school). One room was the game room, one was for a movie, and one for silent reading/homework. The teacher with noon duty that day wandered among the 3, but the other 2 were usually around just in case.
Our kids come into the gym before school anyway, with aides to supervise (it's too cold/dark for most of the year for them to do otherwise!). During recess, two grades stay in the gym (we use half for our cafeteria, so they play on the other half), and the other three take games and toys from their classrooms out into the hallways. Aides also supervise this. In the afternoon, we usually have a 15 minute recess (3-4, followed by K-2). When the upper graders have gym, we are left with the hallway, and it gets noisy so we put them all out in the hall at once. We take turns supervising afternoon recess. Those are my least favorite 15 minutes ever!!! Thankfully, during this trimester, when it's coldest and snowiest, we can take them into the gym during that time!
Our recess aides come into the classrooms to supervise students, if the weather doesn't allow for outdoor recess. Teachers can choose to stay in the classroom, if they'd like, but they are not required to supervise students regardless. I often tell my tattling students to "go tell the recess teacher" if they come up to me while I'm working. Technically, their recess time is not our guaranteed plan time, so we really can't complain about it. We still get our guaranteed plan time at another time of day. We have, however, had reasons why the special area teachers (music, art, and PE) had to teach in the regular classroom during a teacher's plan time (i.e. gym being in use for something else). It's not ideal, and luckily it's rare. I'm not sure teachers would get anywhere complaining though. Our contract guarantees 60 minutes of uninterrupted plan time, but it doesn't guarantee that our classroom will be student-free during that time. It just guarantees that teachers are not the adults responsible for supervising the students. If we really want a student-free environment, we are free to go to another location to work.
Rainy day recess is the teacher's job to handle. Lunch recess, our students are put in classrooms by grade level with a paid teacher yard duty and they watch a movie...I usually eat lunch and go get my students to they can play in the classroom...but I live in Cali and we don't get too many rainy day recesses to worry about...
Its so funny to read how different schools do things. In my school students are held in the cafeteria before school if the weather is too bad for them to remain outside before the morning bell. We don't have mandetory recess, so my students have recess when I take them out. Now each grade has a designated time on the play ground, but I don't have to take them out. We don't have yard duty or yard duty personnel. Each teacher is responsible for their own classes. BTW we have a 30 min duty free lunch daily, but it is not connected with recess time.
Teacher's have an hour duty free lunch every day. For kids that's half hour lunch, half hour recess...both supervised by paras. If its inclement weather, the kids have indoor recess in classrooms. I have a closet full of ganes, art materials and DVDs for such occasions.
Young Teacher Guy, I'm close to you, so whatever rain you got, we got So I understand why you're asking. Our school starts at 8:15, with students at school from 7:45, which is that same for our contract time. For that half an hour we're supposed to supervise students outside. I stayed in my room, just like all other teachers and students just chose 1 classroom to go in. Lunch time is the same deal, it's not a duty free lunch as we're supposed to supervise them (our duty free lunch is technically right after school). So I stayed in my room, and some kids came in. I don't mind, at least I can still do things on my computer and put papers away, etc.
I'm a few hours north, but I'm getting the same rain you guys are!! Our kids eat in the cafeteria (inside), and then have recess in the gym. They're two separate rooms. I LOVE IT. At my old school, kids spent all of recess and lunch in the classroom, and I had to stay in there. It wasn't pleasant. That was SoCal though, so there's not much rain.
I live in California, also. Today was the first full day rainy day of the year. We had to pick up the kids who were already there 15 minutes before the start of the school day. Kids were in the room for recess (but kids who were buying food went down to the cafeteria) with a yard duty para relieving us for a bathroom break. They were in the cafeteria for half of lunch and then 2 classes were brought into my room. There was a yard duty para with them, but it was obvious that they would have run wild if I hadn't taken control. She just stood in the back of the room.
Before school our students have a choice to come in 10 minutes before the bell rings to eat breakfast in the cafeteria, or wait on the bus. Students that get dropped off usually just wait outside, because there is a large overhang that protects them from the rain. In really bad weather, they stand just inside the front doors (this is maybe 30-40 kids). For recess they are in the classroom, and supervised by recess supervisors.
Our recess aids come into our classrooms (usually insisting I get out and enjoy myself while they handle the chaos) while another couple of aids watch kids in the gym if it's not being used. It's a nice system. Teachers are allowed to choose if they want kids in rooms before the bell--I'm against it because before school I'm always in and out of my room. Our students are encouraged to hit the library or playground before the bell rather than congregate in the halls or foyer. My favorite was a prior school where my grade's classrooms were separated only my accordion dividers. Indoor recess... the dividers were open, aids watched over the whole "big room" and the kids wandered freely between the rooms.
Just had my first rainy day as a sub! At the school I was at today, we sent the kids into the multipurpose room for lunch. The regular lunch aides were there to supervise. It may be different tomorrow at the next school, though!
Everyone keeps kids in their room and admin walks around and relieves students who need a bathroom break.
Paras do all of the lunch/recess duties. If the kids can't go outside, recess is held in a large room in the back of our library. We have 1:1 i pads, so when this occurs we let them take the i pads to recess, since there is pretty much nothing else to do in that room.
