How Do You Handle Passes for Destinations outside Your Class?

June 21st, 2010 By: Diane Trim in Articles, Teachers' Corner

I admit it: I was one of those teachers who would give a student a pass to come to the journalism room out of another teacher’s class.

In my defense, I always asked the other teacher ahead of time to send Amanda, JoAnna, Matt, or Jason to the journalism room if they were finished with their work in class.

Last week’s post was about restroom passes. This week, I’m tackling passes to destinations unknown. How do you handle a request to go to the library/media center? The nurse’s office? The parking lot?

Library/Media Center. A pass to the LMC is hard for me to deny. I love it when a student wants to learn more, check out a book, or even read a hot rod magazine. I hate it when a student requests a pass just to hang out at the back tables and chat. It’s even worse when the librarian gives me a frown at lunch and tells me not to send a student to her because the kid is disruptive. Despite the few students who shouldn’t receive LMC passes, I don’t refuse them to many others. It’s tough to defend to my principal or a parent why I’m not letting a student use the library. Why would a teacher deny extra resources to a student? That’s not a question I want to deal with.

My solution? I send kids because the LMC is a destination that has supervision. If one of my students is really ticking off the LMC director, she can send the offender back to me. However, I never give a pass without first understanding what the student intends to do in the LMC. Sitting at the back table and gossiping is not a good objective. Furthermore, I write the student’s task on the back of the pass, so the LMC director can see what the student should be doing and redirect her behavior or send her back, if necessary.

Nurse’s office. This is another destination for which I usually gave a pass. Again, it’s hard to defend keeping a sick kid in class. Yes, I know that students abuse the privilege. However, good communication with the nurse and feedback for the student lets students know that you’re monitoring their passes to the nurse. A gentle word about too many nurse’s office passes and a suggestion to call home about chronic headaches or stomach aches usually either clears up matters or gets the kid some medical assistance. Either is good.

Someone else’s classroom. Yes, my class time is precious and I know that other teachers’ class time is important, too. If I write a pass for a student to come out of history, science, or family and consumer education, I’ll talk to the teacher beforehand. It’s just common courtesy, I think. If I needed a few dictionaries, I wouldn’t enter my friend’s classroom while she was teaching, walk back to the bookshelf, and help myself. No. I would ask her. Before class. If I needed a journalism student, I would do the same thing, before I wrote a pass.

I know teachers who wouldn’t allow a student to leave class to practice a band solo or finish up a science experiment. I know some of my colleagues felt insulted if another teacher asked them to allow a student an extra 15 minutes to finish an essay or meet a deadline. That’s fine. I respect that.

As for me, though. I wanted to celebrate my students’ achievements in other classes, especially when my English class was a struggle for them. It was great to know that although Tony couldn’t use a comma correctly, he could compose his own music. I loved it that Sami connected so well with the agriculture teacher that she wanted to help the teacher repot seedlings. If I could honor another teacher’s request for a student, I tried to make it work. I also hoped that they’d return the favor when a student publication was on deadline.

The locker. Here’s where I did a crackdown. I didn’t like to give locker passes. On the block schedule with a small campus and seven minutes between classes, I just couldn’t justify a locker pass. Need a pen? Here’s one the custodian picked up off the floor yesterday. Want a book? Great. Sign one out from the bookshelf. Need paper? Here’s some scrap paper from the recycle bin. Forgot your assignment? You can bring it to me right after class with no penalty. Forgot your group’s project? Well, what’s your group’s Plan B?

Let’s face it: the kids who forget things in their lockers are usually the same ones over and over. I know this because my own daughter is this kid. What do I tell her? Cope. If she’s going to forget things, then she’s going to have to figure out what to do without them. When I forget something at home, I can’t leave work, dash home, grab my whatever, and return to work. No. I have to cope. My reasoning behind no locker passes is more than clearing hallway traffic during classes; it’s one of those grand life lessons. I feel very comfortable defending this one to parents and principals.

The car/parking lot. Um. No. I’m not giving out a pass to the parking lot. No supervision, no accountability, and no reason to be there. Again: cope.

Guidance or attendance offices. If the attendance office wants a student, they can call and request her. Otherwise, I want my students clearing up their tardies and unexcused absences on their own time. I don’t give passes to the attendance office.

If a student needs to see a guidance counselor, I treat it like a hybrid of a pass from someone else’s classroom and an LMC pass. I talk to the guidance counselor or secretary before writing the pass to make sure that it’s O.K. to send a student. I ask the student what he wants to accomplish with the visit and write that on the back of the pass. I never want the guidance secretary to look up and see a bunch of kids fulfilling no learning objective other than waiting for the bell to ring.

Phone. In my last teaching job, each classroom had a telephone. Students were not allowed to use cell phones during school hours. The only phone available to them was the office phone. I didn’t give out passes to the phone. If a student had a class-related question for a parent, I might use my classroom phone to talk to the parent and hand the phone off to the student. However, in my mind, the phone is like the locker. If a student forgets to make a phone call, I’d be happy to help with Plan B, but I’m not willing for a student to miss class to make a phone call.

How about you? Are you stingy with your passes? Do you resent other teachers who request a student from your class? Do you allow locker passes? Passes to the car? The Library Media Center? Share your strategies and stories in the comments.

Photo credits:
Library jump: Zef Delgadillo on Flickr.com Creative Commons
Sleeping at the library: umjanedoan on Flickr.com Creative Commons

Tags: attendance, cell phone, guidance, library, passes