One of the things I do during the summer is to reflect on the different routines, procedures, and rules I use in my 3rd grade classroom. Since I like these things to run as smooth as possible, I am always trying to tweak my current practices instead of completely re-doing them. One of the areas that I was able to streamline was classroom jobs. Instead of changing the jobs weekly (which created a major learning curve every Monday), I now change jobs every 4 weeks. Now my students get to master the job they have and I get a very smooth running classroom! I started this 2 years ago and I will NEVER go back. At the beginning of the school year, I explain that I will choose the most responsible students for each job (even though every child has a job), but certain jobs, i.e., Teacher’s Assistant, Line Leader, PRIDE Assistant, and Lunch Count are extremely important. I tell them that the goal of classroom jobs is to help me spend more time teaching and less time managing. I am their boss and I do the hiring and the firing! It sounds counterintuitive, but I have found that my students take this very seriously and do an amazing job of running the classroom with very little input from me!
How do you run your classroom jobs? I’d love to hear from you!
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