Classroom Jobs - A Win - Win
For Teacher and Students!!

Having students help with some of the classroom jobs not only made my life easier but they are also a great motivational tool for students.

Kids love helping the teacher - primary or junior grade students, especially girls, even if it's a warm and beautiful day outside.

My theory (an added benefit) was the more they help the less I have to do. I "only" taught in my class and the students did all the rest!

Whether it was giving out or collecting sheets, notebooks (whatever),putting things in alphabetical order, creating a bulletin board or taking one down (under my supervision, of course, they ate it up.

As I mentioned before when I talked about the "Student of the Week" (TA - Teacher's Assistant), he/she could have many classroom tasks (depending on the week), in or outside the room, and their name would be predominant on the job chart which I displayed in my classroom.

The "Student of the Week" could choose a helper or two to assist them (never be alone with one child in the class!).

Classroom Job Chart

At the beginning of each year I created a classroom job chart creature - be creative, for example, an octopus, a rock star playing a guitar, an alien, etc. I would draw it out on bristol board, cut it out and display it for all students to see.

On this chart, different jobs would be shown that could be done by one or two students , such as, gym(2 students), bookshelves(2), classroom games and activities(2), boots (winter), art(2), blackboards(2), pets(2), and of course the TA in the middle of the job chart creature.

Each week on Monday morning, the TA for that week, with his/her chosen helper would change the names from the previous week and put up new names on the creature.

Students would volunteer for each job, but they couldn't have the same job as before until everyone had a chance. Some students never volunteer, so I would give them a choice of which job they wanted for the week.

By the end of the year, all the students had done all the jobs at least once.

Your classroom is your own small community and everyone needs to take part so it runs smoothly and harmoniously and with a dash of fun.

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