Sunday, August 4, 2013

Classroom jobs?

What do you think of classroom jobs in tr middle grades, 6th grade in particular? I am considering having classroom jobs for my students but don't know if this is a good idea for 6th grade? 

I need your opinions! Do any of you middle school teachers have jobs for your students? If so, how we'll do they work an what are the jobs that you assign them? 

Here are some examples of how I might display my classroom jobs. 






Have a great Monday! 

4 comments:

  1. I found having jobs for grade six to be a MUST. As part of the gifted program in my district students need to demonstrate their leadership skills. I found having classroom jobs to be the way to have the kids be accountable to developing their leadership skills. I have a list of jobs, an application and a reference sheet (the parents have to give a reference for the job). The kids LOVED it! I also made sure that they were compensated for their jobs (if they wanted something they could have it) by having jars of candy on my desk. It worked for me. I didn't let them just take the candy without having done the job, but if they wanted a piece for doing their job they could have one. A lot of kids did their job just for the feeling of doing a good job and having me praise them. I suggest you try it!
    Sidney
    Teachingisagift

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  2. In the middle of last year, the 6th grade Math teacher and I (English) realized (while chatting during lunch one day) that we both gave the same student job of teacher's assistant/student teacher because he needed to be busy at all times. From there on, we both made jobs for all the kids in our class and both of us equally found it to be successful for almost everyone. At first I changed jobs, but let that same kid be student teacher. Then, I changed him and it was chaos overall. Then we went back to the same jobs everyone received the first time around, which made for a natural order. The kid who was really good at computers went back to being "tech guy" and so on....

    This was a major learning experience for me. I agree with Ms. M, jobs in 6th grade is so important to the kids and helping teachers with class flow. My suggestion (goes along with Ms. M's I think...) is to give it some time and get to know the kids before assigning jobs. Then keep the jobs throughout the year. If you change them, the kids will only finally get good at them in time for the job to change.

    Good luck with the jobs this year! If you want a copy of how I organized my job title, feel free to email me...LVC6@verizon.net =)

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  3. My kids love it! I have to rotate their jobs because they fight over them (yep, they are 6th graders and my 7th graders have even fought over them too in the past!). It is also great for those kids that need to be kept busy and just get up and move. Sometimes they just need to feel like the special helper--totally juvenile but it completely works! Anything I need and they are my handy assistant! Ha! I am lucky that this year I already know 1/3 of my students and so I know already some of my kids that I can rely on from day 1 to be my helpers.

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  4. In the past I have just had 2 helpers from each class and they help me with whatever I need, such as passing out papers, running something to the office, etc. This year I am doing ISN's and so each table of 6 will have 1 person from each table who gets the supply caddie every day, 1 person from each table who is in charge of throwing away the scraps from the trash bucket on their desk, and 1 person at each table who is in charge of organizing the supplies after they are put away at the end of each class period. I also will have 1 class librarian to help check-in and check-out my classroom library books because I have a hard time keeping up with it when I am trying to work with other students, take attendnace, etc. and they want to check-in and out. I have made a poster similar to the ones that you posted and will insert their names on an index card. I plan on having them rotate the jobs within the ISN groups so that each person has a turn and has to take some responsibility.

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