Classroom jobs are a great way to build classroom community and promote positive social-emotional learning skills in your students. Whether you have an early childhood classroom or an upper elementary classroom, spending time setting up your classroom jobs system at the beginning of the year will set you up for a great year ahead!
The importance of classroom jobs:
Some of the benefits of classroom jobs for STUDENTS include:
- Promoting teamwork - students must work collaboratively to keep the classroom running smoothly.
- Builds student responsibility and leadership skills - classroom jobs help students to develop a sense of responsibility and other important life skills
- Builds a sense of community and a more inclusive classroom, where students feel like valued members who are vital to the effective running of the classroom environment.
Some of the benefits of classroom jobs for TEACHERS include:
- Reducing your workload - by giving students responsibility and training them up to manage certain systems and procedures within your classroom, you're removing things off YOUR to-do list with a little extra help!
- If you have a substitute teacher on your class, you can rest assured that your class will still hum along in your absence!
- An effective classroom management system - students must demonstrate that they are safe, respectful learners in order to be given the important role of a classroom job.
- Your classroom will feel like a well-oiled machine.
My preferred classroom job system:
Before I give you a comprehensive list of classroom jobs, let me tell you about my preferred classroom helpers system!
In my classroom, I prefer to embrace simplicity when it comes to our classroom helper system. While some teachers have a diverse array of individual jobs assigned to each student, such as pencil sharpener, bell ringer, whiteboard cleaner, messenger, or line leader, I've found that managing numerous job rotations each week can become quite an undertaking.
That's why I prefer to adopt a streamlined approach, appointing a single King and Queen (or Superheroes, Minions, or other fun titles) who oversee all the tasks for the entire week. This allows me to maintain all the benefits of a classroom helpers system, while minimising the need for constant job rotations.
This system can be changed over at the end of each week, or the end of the day. I simply work my way through my class list until the entire class has had a turn. It allows all students to take on the full range of class jobs throughout the school year, and keeps my classroom learning environment ticking along smoothly!
My free classroom helper charts come in a range of classroom themes. Simply add the individual students' names and you're ready to go!
List of classroom jobs:
If you are wanting to do individual classroom jobs, you want to make sure you have enough jobs for your entire class! So, let's get into the full range of classroom jobs, listed in alphabetical order. Please note that different jobs will apply more to different school settings, so pick and choose the classroom job ideas that work best for you and your classroom setting! Some jobs will not be appropriate for young children, but may be a good idea for upper elementary students.
- Announcer: Responsible for making announcements for the teacher in a nice loud voice.
- Art Director: Helps the teacher with any art-related jobs, including handing out supplies and helping to clean up after an art lesson.
- Assistant Teacher: This student is in charge of answering questions if the teacher is busy.
- Attendance Monitor: Responsible for marking the roll in the morning
- Backpack Monitor: Responsible for ensuring that backpacks or school bags are neat, tidy and organised
- Bathroom Monitor: Checks that the bathrooms are being kept clean and reports back to the teacher if they aren't. They might also be in charge of counting the number of students who are in the bathroom at any one time.
- Bin Monitor: Checks that classroom rubbish is being put in the bin, and empties the classroom bin at the end of the day.
- Botanist: In charge of watering and taking care of the classroom plants.
- Brain Break Selector: In charge of selecting the brain break activity for the class.
- Caboose: Monitors the back of the line by being the last person in the line. They are in charge of ensuring that the line is staying together.
- Calendar Helper: In charge of changing the date on the daily calendar, and reminding the class of upcoming events.
- Chair Stacker: In charge of stacking chairs or monitoring the class as they stack chairs at the end of the day.
- Class Ambassador: This student might be in charge of answering any questions that the substitute teacher has, or representing the class if they win something in a school assembly.
- Composter: Monitor and empty the compost bin, help with rinsing it out at the end of each day or week.
- Desk Inspector: In charge of monitoring student desks, making sure they are neat and tidy before the class heads out for break-times.
- Door Holder: In charge of opening, closing and holding doors for the class.
- Errand Runner: This student is on hand to help the teacher with any odd jobs throughout the day.
- Floor Sweeper: After the class has picked up any scraps or mess from the floor at the end of the day, this student uses a dust pan and broom to sweep up any leftover dust and dirt.
- Gardener: Same role as the botanist.
- Greeter: In charge of answering the door and greeting guests and visitors to the classroom. This student may also be in charge of answering the classroom phone.
- Hand Sanitiser: Squirts hand sanitiser on student hands before they head out for breaks and/or return from breaks.
- Homework Collector: In charge of collecting homework from everyone
- Job Monitor: In charge of swapping over classroom jobs and ensuring your classroom job chart is kept tidy e.g. job cards with job titles and name cards are in the pocket chart or stuck to the bulletin board.
- Kindness Detective: Records when they spot fellow classmates performing random acts of kindness. They could write student names on a piece of paper and place in a bowl to be read out at the end of the week.
- Librarian: In charge of keeping the classroom library tidy. They may also be in charge of carrying class books to and from the school library.
- Lights Monitor: Ensures that lights are turned off whenever the class leaves the classroom.
- Line Leader: This student is at the front of the line, and leads the class in a responsible and respectful way. They follow teacher directions and stop the line when directed.
- Lunch Helper: This student (or students) may be in charge of collecting lunch orders or supporting the teacher with any other lunch jobs.
- Mail Carrier or Messenger: In charge of taking messages to other teachers, as well as delivering and picking up items from the school office.
- Morning Meeting Leader: If you run morning meetings in your classroom, this student could be in charge of running the morning meetings.
- Noise Monitor: Helps to monitor the noise level in the classroom.
- Office Manager: In charge of classroom supplies
- On Call: This student is read to substitute for students who are absent and unable to do their job for the day.
- Paper Passer: In charge of passing out papers, handouts and worksheets throughout the day.
- Parent Communications Manager: This student would be in charge of handing out notes which need to go home to families. They might also be in charge of helping the teacher to keep track of permission slips which students bring back to school.
- Pencil Patrol: In charge of collecting stray pencils throughout the day and returning them to their rightful place. This person may also be the pencil sharpener - see below.
- Pencil Sharpener: In charge of sharpening pencils at the beginning of the day, or at an allocated time throughout the day.
- Pet Caretaker: Ensures that the classroom pet is fed daily and that their container is clean.
- Recycler: In charge of ensuring that recyclable items are put in the correct bins. They might also need to take the classroom recycling bin to the larger school recycling bin.
- Runner: Similar to Messenger, this student runs errands or messages for the teacher.
- Science Monitor: In charge of handing out supplies during science lessons.
- Sink Cleaner: If your classroom has a wet area or sink, this student would be in charge of making sure the sink is clear of debris and wiping it down.
- Snack Helper: This student might be in charge of passing out snacks or recess orders.
- Sweeper: In charge of sweeping dust at the end of the day - same as the Floor Sweeper job.
- Table Washers or Table Wipers: In charge of wiping or washing tables whenever necessary.
- Teacher’s Aide: Similar to errand runner, this student is on hand to help the teacher with any odd jobs throughout the day.
- Technology Helper or Tech Team: In charge of turning on computers in the morning and turning them off in the afternoon. They might help the teacher pass out laptops or iPads, and plug devices back into charging carts.
- Timekeeper: Helps the teacher to keep track of timing for classroom activities and transitions. They might be in charge of turning the classroom timer or stopwatch on and off.
- Trash Squad: Similar to bin monitor.
- Weather Reporter: Helps the teacher to record the daily weather on a classroom weather display.
- Whiteboard Cleaner: Helps to wipe down whiteboards at the end of the day.
- Zoologist: Same as the Pet Caretaker
Displaying your classroom jobs
There are lots of different ways to display your student jobs. Some ideas for displaying the different types of jobs and student names include:
- Writing each student's name on clothes pins and clipping to each job title. I've seen some jobs displayed in a circle to save space.
- Writing students jobs on mini envelopes and writing student names on popsicle sticks which are then placed inside the envelopes
- Displaying jobs and names in pocket charts
- Displaying online - The Hive would be the perfect tool for this!
I hope that this blog post provided you with some great ideas that you can use to establish an effective classroom jobs system in your own classroom!