Classroom Jobs

Now Hiring: Responsible students to carry out important classroom duties.

As an upper elementary teacher, I have found that certain classroom jobs are critical to running an efficient classroom. I try to give everyone things to do throughout the year, but at the beginning of the year, I watch for students I can train to consistently take care of certain jobs in my classroom.

Calendar: If I didn't have someone to take care of the calendar, I would probably forget to change it each month. My school follows a six day rotation for PE, art, and music. I have one person (sometimes two) to change out the "day". I bought a large calendar from a teacher supply store and laminated all of the pieces. I put magnets on the calendar so that I could hang it on my chalkboard. I put Velcro dots on each square of the calendar and on all of my calendar numbers. This makes it easy and quick to change out. I found matching letters and extra numbers. I have magnets on the back of the word "day" and numbers 1-6. We put the "day" of the week number next to the word "day" and change it out daily. The kids always know which day it is, which is a good thing, because without them I would never no where to go! I will try to remember to post a picture when I get back to school. You can find themed calendar pieces in each of my Classroom Theme Packets.

Secretary: This job is extremely important. I generally recruit 2-3 students to act as my secretaries all year long. I do not have a basket 13 for students to lose their work in. I am very particular about taking up papers. I take papers up at once, but I always remind students to write their names on their papers by saying, "Everyone stop. Point to your name." It works like a charm! One of my secretaries will collect the papers and put them in abc order. A couple of years ago I found a file sorter. I insist that students write their last name on their papers. My secretary quickly puts each person's paper in their correct slot (abc), and then takes them all out in abc order! The file sorter saves a lot of time. The secretary paperclips the set of papers together and places them into my "to be graded" basket. They can add a sticky note with the names of absent students as well. Look for a responsible child who is generally finished with work sooner than the rest of the class.

My Classroom Library

Librarian: My classroom library is rather large. All of my books are organized in baskets by genre. I use an old-fashioned library card system for check out. I generally recruit at least two librarians. I look for students who are good at organizing. Sometimes your ADHD children make the best librarians! My librarians keep the books organized. They check to make sure that books are in the correct basket and that each book has a library card. They also check through the check out box. I only allow students to check out one book at a time from my classroom library -this cuts down on missing books. My librarians check to make sure students are following my library check out procedures. They inform me of any problems they discover (like someone checked out five books five months ago and never returned them).

Table Captains: I assign a table captains to take care of community supplies, to pass out and collect books and notebooks, and to collect papers at the table. Table captains quickly put the the papers in abc order and make sure that they have everyone's paper. They hand them to the secretary when they come by. I do rotate table captains about every nine weeks. Some students love the job, and others do not. I tend to allow the student who wants to do the job, and can do it quickly, quietly, and efficiently to take it on.

There are many other jobs you can create. You can rotate jobs or find a job for every single student. Here are some other student job ideas: gardener, runner, table monitor, line leader, attendance secretary, pencil monitor, homework checker, etc.

Follow this linky party to get more classroom job ideas!