I am sitting in what will be one of my last classes of my EDUC 491 practicum. The grade 7 students are supposed to read silently, but I can hear what feels like a million little voices and giggles behind me. I have been moved out of the Teacher’s desk and am now seated beside the classroom door. Students will do anything not to read in this class. I swear almost every one of the students has gone out of the room for one reason or another in the last twenty minutes.
I watched a video recently, probably on Tik Tok, by a teacher talking about teaching his students proper door etiquette, and I didn’t think much about it then. Still, today, I’m thinking – man, that guy was brilliant! The basis of his idea was that his classroom door was always shut. It sounded like it was locked too. (Super smart, given that you must lock your door in an emergency). He taught all his students how to properly knock on a door and wait patiently, step back and wait for someone to come and open the door. He also taught his students not to open the door without explicit permission. He could also differentiate between his students and strangers by their knock style. This allowed him to track students and others coming in and out of his classroom.
Sitting here by the door, I am acutely aware of the amount of noise coming into the classroom from the hallway and the fluctuation that it has had throughout the day. I am also mindful of how easily students pass in and out of the class without notice when the door is open compared to when it is closed.
I’ve learned in my years as a TTOC that I like working in classrooms where the teachers have a great routine where the students are accustomed to moving a marker or writing their name on a whiteboard to signal when they are in and out of the room.
I think having a knocking-to-come-in routine and a names-to-go-out routine would be the ideal situation to help me manage one of my biggest fears which is not knowing where one of my students is in an emergency.