Common area observation methods and findings

Common Area Observation

Lacy Elementary School is a 60-year-old K-6 public school situated in an urban school district and designed to accommodate up to 500 students. However, the school is currently serving 650 students most of whom qualify for the federal breakfast and lunch program. In addition, the school is a neighborhood institution with 200 students riding buses from surrounding neighborhoods because of the recent rezoning project. While school usually begins at 8:30 am, the school cafeteria is opened for breakfast every morning at 7:30 am. Most of the teachers do not arrive early since they are not required to report until 15 minutes before the opening bell. As a result, the supervision of students before and after school is the responsibility of teacher assistants and paraprofessionals. This paper provides insights on common area observations made in the school cafeteria in terms of things that help keep it well managed and those contributing to various management or behavioral problems.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Lacy Elementary School

As evident in the profile, Lacy Elementary School serves a large student population beyond what it was designed to accommodate. The large student population creates challenges and complexities in management, especially for teacher assistants or paraprofessionals who supervise students before and after school. Based on the mock profile of the school, there are things that work well and those that don’t with regard to students’ behavior and management. These things help to indicate the strengths and weaknesses of Lacy Elementary School as discussed below.

Students Characteristics, Issues, and Factors

The breakfast program was a success as students appeared calm and respectful while displaying appropriate behaviors. The students were able to get in quickly, find a seat, and have breakfast as the room had fewer kids, more room, less waiting time, and appeared calmer. Students displayed appropriate behaviors at all times and across all aspects of the breakfast program. Most of the behaviors during this time revolved around finding a seat, having breakfast, chatting, and completing their homework. Additionally, students would throw trash away in garbage bins when leaving the criteria. The appropriate behaviors displayed by the students contributed to the smooth running of the morning breakfast program with minimal disruptions. However, the situation was slightly different during lunch as students were loud and even shouted across the cafeteria. Unlike during breakfast, the lunch program was loud and characterized by some inappropriate students’ behaviors. Some of the undesirable behaviors displayed by students during lunch include pushing and shoving each other and wandering from one table to the next. The waiting times during lunch are long as it takes approximately 20 minutes for the students at the back of the long queue to get through. The tables in the dining hall are littered with trash and trays by many students when leaving the cafeteria. The students begin lining up at the door before the bell rings and push and shove each other as they leave.

Teacher/Staff Characteristics, Issues, and Factors

As previously mentioned, the supervision of students before and after school is the responsibility of teacher assistants and paraprofessionals. However, during lunchtime, teachers are required to walk their students to the cafeteria and leave as part of the duty-free lunch practice at the school. During breakfast, the behaviors of the students are supervised by two paraprofessionals and a school administrator. These paraprofessionals and school administrator are able to maintain order during the morning breakfast program because of the minimal student behavioral issues. Management of students’ behavior by these staff during breakfast is easy because students display appropriate behaviors and the dining hall is calm and quieter. However, supervision of the dining hall during lunchtime is quite challenging for the staff. Teachers leave the cafeteria as soon as they walk their students in and leave staffs to manage them. However, some teachers are unable to get out of the cafeteria fast enough because it is crowded and noisy. Once teachers leave, supervision of the two lunch programs at the school is carried out by three paraprofessionals, three parents, and two school administrators. Many students ask to use the restroom but do not have their school ID as required. The school administrator is not consistent with the expectation for students to have their IDs before using the restroom as he allows the first to go and denies others.

Environmental Characteristics, Issues, and Factors

The cafeteria has a capacity of 300 students at a time but additional chairs are placed at the already crowded tables to accommodate 325 students during lunch. This implies that the cafeteria handles more than its capacity and is overcrowded during the lunch program. The cafeteria appears to have only two doors i.e. the main front door and a door leading to the exterior. Since it is usually crowded during lunch, the cafeteria does not have enough walk room between the tables, which could be disastrous in case of an emergency situation like a fire incident. The huge number of students at the cafeteria at this time implies it does not have enough fire extinguishers to handle such an emergency. Additionally, the crowding makes it difficult to comply with safety regulations for all students.

Incentives and Consequences

Similar to all elementary schools, Lacy Elementary School has expectations relating to students’ behaviors. These expectations play a critical role in the classroom and school-wide student behavior management. In essence, they shape strategies adopted by teachers and staff to ensure students display appropriate behavior. The existence of these behavioral expectations is evident in the smooth running of the morning breakfast program and how behavioral issues in the lunch program are handled. While the school has behavioral expectations for students, there is relatively nothing in place for incentives. The incentives for students relative to appropriate behavior in the cafeteria are unknown. For example, while most students display appropriate behavior in the morning dining program, they are not given any incentives. Students are not rewarded for being quiet, calm, and displaying good behaviors in the cafeteria. On the contrary, the consequences of inappropriate behavior like severe infractions during lunchtime are dealt with. Despite allowing some students to use the restroom without their IDs, the school administrator denies other requests as a means of promoting appropriate behavior among students. Office referrals are also used as consequences of inappropriate behavior by students.

Resources

Space is a major problem in the cafeteria, especially during the lunch program, because of the addition of extra seats to facilitate feeding 325 students. This makes it difficult to create enough walk room between the tables and contributes to the chaotic state of the cafeteria. The provision of enough space would help improve the success of the experience of the program for students and staff by making it easy to move around. Staff would better manage students’ interactions during lunchtime if they had enough room to walk around. Secondly, the additional seats are extra materials that complicate students’ interactions and seating by contributing to crowding. Students would probably interact well if these extra seats are not added. The removal of these additional seats would also help lessen the pushing and shoving. Time management is another resource that shapes the cafeteria experience for students and staff. Students display appropriate behaviors in the morning dining program partly because of lesser wait times. On the contrary, the long wait times during lunch increases the chances of inappropriate behavior such as pushing and shoving.

Recommendations

As evident in the observations, the different management and behavior problems witnessed in the morning and lunch programs at Lacy Elementary School could be addressed through various strategies. One of the recommendations to help enhance student behavior, especially during lunchtime is the addition of a third lunchtime. This would address most of the behavior problems by reducing the number of students eating at the cafeteria at a time. The addition of a third lunchtime would allow for fewer tables at the cafeteria and provide more room to move around, which is critical in reducing the crowding and pushing and shoving.