10 Ways to Pass the Time While on Duty

This week I have DUTY.

For those of you who are new to teaching or working toward your teaching career, DUTY one of those wish-I-didn’t-have-to-do-this part of your job.

What happens is that the administration will give you random assignments before or after school where you will be asked monitor students as they arrive or leave school. It normally lasts for a week, then you’ll get a few weeks off before you’re scheduled for another “tour of DUTY.”

This week I have duty on the “corner.”

I have to be out on the busy street corner making sure students don’t get hit by cars as they arrive at school.

I’m not a big fan of duty. I’d rather be in my class preparing for the day.

Since, however, I have to be out there breathing in the exhaust fumes, I thought of a few ways to make the time pass a little faster.

This is one of those blog posts that you need to print out and post in your classroom for the next time you are scheduled for duty. Really!

10 Ways to Pass the Time While on Duty

1. Make a list of future blog post titles.
2. Count the green cars.
3. Practice your license plate identification skills. Do it like they do on TV: 4-7-Charlie-Alpha-3-Delta-6
4. Wave at a random driver like they’re your old friend.
5. Count the blue cars.
6. Think of ways to add something extra to your lesson plan.
7. Say “Good Morning” to students who you don’t know, and identify them by what they look like. You have to be careful with this one. Make your identifying sentence positive. “Good morning, girl with the really cool back pack.” “Good morning boy with the hair cut that’s going to make all the girls say ‘wow!’”
8. Count how many seconds it takes for the green light to turn yellow.
9. Count the red cars.
10. Make a mental list of your five students who deserve a positive phone call home. Then, when you get back to class, write the list down, so you don’t forget.
11. Extra: If you are given a walkie-talkie, start talking into it when a car flies by you going too fast. Make sure you keep looking at the car as you talk into the walkie-talkie. Just don’t press the talk button.  That driver will think twice before speeding past that corner when you’re there.

There you have it. Follow these tips, and your 15 minutes of duty will be over before you know it.

Do you have any other ideas? I would love to add them to the list.

Thanks,

Sam

Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23537201@N06/