Morning in the library
Our middle school first period class starts at 8:50, but many of our students arrive around 8 a.m. most days. Students wait in the cafeteria for the most part. If you are a band student, orchestra student, or art student you can go down to those rooms when the teachers come pick you up. When the cafeteria starts filling up, students are taken to the hallway to wait.
My first year at this campus, I opened up the library with games for the students. I didn't mind that it was loud because they were having fun. As the weeks went by, I noticed fewer and fewer students coming in the morning. I went out to the hallway where I noticed one of the regular morning visitors was sitting with a book looking very frustrated. I asked him why he didn't come to the library to read. He said it was too loud in the library in the mornings. I then started surveying some of the other students that came the first week, but then stopped coming. The majority of them told me they were hoping for a quiet place. All the other rooms were noisy, and they needed a quiet calming place to stay in the mornings.
So, I decided to change up the library in the morning. It is now a quiet place, and the rule is to respect others and not be above a whisper. In my three years I only had to send a group out one time that was not following the rule and being extremely loud and watching videos on their phones. I have over 40 students in the library most mornings that come to read, study, or just be in the quiet before class. In my tiny library, 40 is A LOT!
The moral of my story -- You have to get to know your students and find out what they need. In my case, my students needed a quiet place, so I provided that for them.
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