Picture the typical elementary school lunch line. At best, it's a noisy group of hungry kids. At worst, it can be a nightmare of pushing, yelling and discipline run amok.

Then there's the lunch line at College View Elementary School in Denver. It may not be the perfect solution, but paraprofessional Georgia Gunzenhauser has come up with a more productive way for students to spend their time while waiting for food. The Denver Federation for Paraprofessionals member developed a daily quiz to help the students learn some facts and to cut down on the temptation for lunch-line rowdiness. "These are just the kinds of things that kids need to know, basic information," Gunzenhauser says.

With the youngest students at the K-5 school, she gives them sight words to practice. Since the school has a large Latino population, the words are in English and Spanish. For grades 2-5, she has developed a collection of close to 300 questions. To cite just a few: How many days does it take for the Earth to go around the sun? What are the primary colors? What's the fastest animal in the world? What's the closest star to Earth? Or she might have them count by 6s to 60 or tackle other math questions. The students typically get a question in teams of two; that way, they can try to answer it together or compete to see who gets it first.

"At first, I thought it would slow the line down," says Gunzenhauser, a 19-year veteran paraprofessional. "It might slow them down just a hair, but not to where it's a problem."

More to the point, she quickly concluded that the kids like the quizzes, and she loves being the quiz master. "It's a low-pressure way to keep them focused," she says. "It makes my job go quicker, too." The noises in line now are the whoops of pleasure when she tells students they got the right answer. "It's great for their self-esteem," she adds.

Parents and other staff at the school seem to appreciate those efforts, too. When parents happen to be around at lunch time, Gunzenhauser says she notices them smiling when they see what goes on in line. And on the days when Gunzenhauser knows she'll be gone, such as an all-day field trip, her colleagues will ask for some of her questions to keep things going even in her absence.

In part because of her lunch-line efforts, Gunzenhauser was honored last fall as one of four "exemplary paraeducators" in the state by the School Paraeducator Association of Colorado. She got to attend the group's conference and was honored with a plaque and ribbon--not to mention a free lunch.

Gunzenhauser also has made a concerted effort to learn Spanish so she can communicate with the school's second-language students. In addition to her one-hour lunch duty, she works with kindergartners for two hours and second graders for one hour. "My Spanish isn't fluent, but I can get along pretty well, especially with the kindergartners," she says. Not bad for someone whose last formal Spanish class was 30 years ago.