Teacher Talks: Classroom Jobs, a Headache Cured

Recently I have watched as classroom teachers tire of telling students what to do and try to honorably give students chances at doing things in the classroom. Kids sincerely just want to help. But, having five kids want to help do the same thing at the same time can get annoying. So what do we do? Most of the time we shut them all down and tell them to sit down and quit asking. Simple solution = Classroom Jobs. Start off at the beginning of the year with introducing that you have classroom jobs. Students will work extra hard to have these jobs! Then, at the end of each month, you can rotate jobs with students. I saw at one school the teacher allowed students at the beginning of the year to write down three jobs they would like to have and she would distribute jobs based off of their preferences. I thought that was neat giving students the opportunity to choose for themselves. This way, you don't have five hands go up to turn off the smartboard. Or in the afternoon, you don't have three students following you everywhere asking if they can sweep the floor. You have that assigned and those students know what responsibility they have. 

Headache Cured!!