What classroom jobs do you have in your room? I plan on keeping some of mine from my 3rd grade room like postal worker and line leader, but I'm looking for some new ones too.
Medic Give the kid a zip lock bag full of bandaids. When ever a kid complains of a small cut, you shout "Medic!" and he or she gets up and brings the child a bandaid.
Last year I made a poster that would have enough jobs so everyone would have one. (It worked really well.) I used a hand die-cut and glued different colored hands around the border of the poster board. Under each hand I wrote a job. Each student had a clothes pin with their name on it. I attached one pin to each hand. Each week I just rotated the pins clockwise. These were the jobs: -Messenger -Line Leader -Door Holder -Light Person -Table Washers (for the cafeteria) -Sweepers (for the cafeteria) -Pen Passer (for Writer's Workshop) -Folder Passer (for Writer's Workshop) -Agenda Passer -Table Captains -Pencil Sharpener -Board Eraser/Cleaner That's all I remember. I thought about adding classroom library captains for next year. They would be in charge of making sure the books were sorted back into the correct baskets.
I just have 1 and love it. That child is my helper for the day. We never waste time with someone forgetting their job. My morning meeting starts with choosing a helper. it's a big deal so there is no forgetting. I used to do tons of jobs and it drove me crazy (to each his/her own). some love having lots of jobs and some even make sure every child has a job. Then I changed to having one helper on a weekly basis. I did this in combination with Student of the Week. Every child had their week. However, with the young ones I teach I felt that some kiddos were having to wait until March or April for their special week. So, this next year I am doing it on a daily basis - but just 1 helper per day.
I also just have one helper each day. They get a "Special Helper" sticker and are in charge of all the jobs. I also tear off the Morning Message or the Question of the Day and send it home with that child. For some reason, they love that and proudly stuff it into their backpack.
I have: line leader caboose (end of the line) door holder lights helper attendance calendar books (sorts books in tubs) clean up substitute (does the job of anyone who is absent) lunch tub teacher helper (does odd jobs for me) Kids keep their job for a week. This year I think I'm going to add a computer helper and possibly another book helper - 1 person didn't seem to be enough last year, as I have a lot of book tubs.
This will be my first year teaching, but I'm making sure I add a pencil sharpener to my jobs. For some reason kids think its the coolest thing to sharpen their pencils so are constantly getting up to do it. This way each group has a community basket on their desks where they share supplies. So by the pencil sharpener I have 2 container: i need to be sharpened, and sharpend! if they break a pencil they just put in the the "i need to be sharpened" container and take a new one out of the "sharpened" container. The person who has pencil sharpening as their job, either in the am or pm will take all the pencils out of the un sharpened ones and sharpens them so they are ready for the day.
depends on what grade you will teach. I've taught 1st and 2nd and would not want either grade using a sharpener. Pencil sharpening issues really is more to do with expectations. My 1st grader were better at not breaking and keeping up with pencils than 2nd grade (mostly because I was more experience when I taught 1st). I sharpen pencils once per day (I'm not a worksheet queen so there wasn't a need for more). A couple of my ADHD boys couldn't manage, but everyone did fine.
I can't deal with all the helpers and remembering to move and rotate and all that. I just choose two helpers a day (each kid has their name on a fish and is in a basket. I pick out two fish and post them on the board under helpers of the day sign). Those two helpers do all the helper stuff like pass out papers, run errands, door holder, end of the day room check, etc. At the end of the day I pick two new helpers for the next day and put the old fish into a different pile. I go through the class pretty quickly and they have many opportunities to be helpers throughout the year.
