Bathroom Breaks

One of the hardest parts of the teaching, or the subbing, day is the bathroom break. The teacher I subbed for today actually had 4 different bathroom breaks in her schedule. When I had my own classroom, I usually had a morning and an afternoon break.

Why is the bathroom break so hard? Well the key to maintaining control of a class is eye contact, once you lose that eye contact all control is lost. If I have a group of 10 girls and 10 boys using the bathroom, usually 3 boys and 3 girls use the bathroom at once. Now do I maintain eye contact with the students in the hall or with the 3 boys in the bathroom (the 3 girls in the bathroom aren't an option since I'm a male teacher). Well I've already lost control of the 3 girls using the bathroom, you will use the bathroom for an extended break of talking and makeup application. Do I keep the eye on the boys in the hall who are about to fight or on the boys in the bathroom who decide to play with the toilets and have a water fight. Little kids and bathrooms are absolutely gross!

I was supposed to go through this silliness three times today. I'm sure some of you wonder why I don't just send the kids to the bathrooms on their own. Well its usually against school policy in most urban schools...and here's the kicker if you did send a student to the bathroom on their own and something were to happen to them, you as the teacher are liable for what happens to them. Ninety dollars a day isn't worth it sometimes.

My subbing career will be over in the next week or so, I've been offered a library job---they are just trying to figure out the best branch for me at the moment. So for my last week of subbing I am going to be picky as hell!

Will I miss subbing? I'm sure there will be a little part of me that will, but I am not going to miss my role as disciplinarian. Not one little bit.