While I see hundreds of kids in class each year, I may see just as many in the halls, cafeteria, and other common areas of the building. While my relationship with kids who are not sharing class with me is quite different from those in class, I take it just as seriously. Some of my favorites students and those with whom I have wonderful (and sometimes long-lasting) relationships have never received a grade from me – and that’s just fine!
I make a point to greet people in the hallways. I say good morning or afternoon. I wish people a happy Wednesday or ask if a good Monday is even possible. When I am supervising the library, cafeteria, or other space, I work hard to get to know the students around me.
This is not just because everything works better when we know each other. It is also because learning and education take place all the time in school. The classroom may be the primary and most important learning location, but it far from the only one. Real learning is occurring every moment and, as educators, we must be aware of that and integrate experiences in non-classroom spaces into the general curriculum.
Often, I try to be just as playful outside the classroom as I am in the classroom. I will create spontaneous tag games and very lightly tap a student on the backpack and say, “you’re it!” While I am not really starting a game, it is a way to get a smile, help a student to look up from his or her phone, or to initiate a conversation. I have had a few kids who have made that tag game the basis of a long-term relationship, and that’s great!
I joke with the kids in the hall who are engaged in a little public display of affection or clogging the halls during passing period that, “there’s no hugging in the halls, no happiness in halls!” By joking about what is going on, I get a smile more than a confrontation.
My own children often roll their eyes when I moo like a cow when caught in long lines. Yet, that is what I feel like when the stream of humanity has slowed to a trickle and we are lumbering along wondering if whatever is at the end of this long line is going to be worth the hassle.
I make it a point to check in with former students and other students in the hallways. I ask them if they are behaving themselves, and when they always say that they are, I act disappointed and say, “You never did for me!”
When they note that they saw me earlier, I point out that there are two of me so it might have been the other me that they saw earlier. This has two meanings. There is another teacher who resembles me enough that we are often confused with each other. On my free periods, I do run around the halls a great deal looking for teachers I need to talk to, making copies, checking in with counselors and social workers and others. So it is not unusual for people to see me several times. I joke that they saw my clone earlier and then I sing a variation on that song from Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, “Send in the clones, there ought to be clones, don’t bother they’re here.”
A student recently pointed out that I frequently ask kids in the hall, “how goes it?” For some reason, that phrasing was new to her. When they ask it back to me, I frequently answer, “It goes.”
When, during that moment in the hall, the student says, “I’ll see you later, “ my answer (with an ironic grin, of course) might be, “Don’t threaten me!” I joke with students who are eating lollipops that they are suckers and Mr. Barnum says that there is one born every minute.
When nearly running into someone coming around a corner a little too closely, I say, “Knock, knock” hoping we don’t knock each other over. I try not to take those right-hand corners too tightly, but people with phones are often unaware of their place in space. So I will steer right into the path of a student looking down at a phone and, when they look up at me, remind them that texting and walking can be dangerous!
I check in with students carrying bags of ice on their wounded arms and legs by appearing shocked and telling them that they killed their goldfish, “You aren't supposed to put ice in there when you win!”
What happens in the halls spills into the classroom and vice versa. A little joy, a little playfulness, a little connection in the hall is important. It makes a big place smaller and gives students one more friendly adult face.
