Classroom Management: Hall Passes

When I first started teaching I was in what we call "The Learning Cottage."  AKA: Trailer.

A trailer that sat pretty far away from the always requested bathroom and water fountain.

Students would ask to go to the bathroom and disappear for about 5-10 minutes.  It just took that long for them to trudge up the hallway, slowly use the bathroom, get water, and amble back to class.  By then they missed a whole mini lesson....super frustrating to me at the time and the students later on when they realized they didn't have a clue what was going on! My teacher sense told me they REALLY didn't have to go to the bathroom, they were just trying to escape my awesomeness {Sad face}

So I implemented the hall pass.

Get a reproducible sheet here

How it works...
1.  Each student gets three hall passes each quarter.
2.  If they need to go to the bathroom, locker, water fountain, etc they have to use one of their hall passes.
3.  When they hand it to me, I rip it up {in a nice, happy way!} and allow them to go to leave.
4.  Any hall passes left over at the end of the quarter may be turned in for extra credit on low test grades.

It has worked GREAT!  I still have students who ask to go to the bathroom.  However, when I ask for their pass they decide it's not worth it.

It's a win win if you ask me!  They stay in class to hear my amazing lesson and get a little boost on an assessment.

Awesome!

Happy Teaching,