So this year I am trying something new by having my students have classroom jobs. Last year I spent a lot of mine time doing the various jobs below, especially cleaning, straightening things up, putting things back where they were supposed to do. I saw on Pinterest a picture with classroom jobs for middle school students and was intrigued. I had only seen classroom jobs used in elementary classrooms, but I liked the idea of putting some of the responsibility of keeping our classroom environment organized and clean on the students so I did some research. From that research, I found these two posts below where I got a lot of my inspiration when I was creating the jobs and writing up the job descriptions for my classroom.
Here is what I came up with for my classroom jobs. I like the descriptions of responsibilities and qualifications turned out and the variety of jobs I came up with. I think this will be a big help to me this year.
I think the trickiest part about having classroom jobs in a secondary classroom is how to set it up and display it so that everyone knows who has what jobs & what their responsibilities are without me needed to remind people all the time. I have three different grade levels of health (Health 7, 8 & 9) with each grade level having two classes. The 7th & 8th sections rotate every other day with PE. I didn't want to make something that would be too much work for me to keep up & that I could use year after year without it being a pain. So below is a picture of what I came up with for displaying classroom jobs.
To make this I created a table in Microsoft Word and set the page up in landscape orientation. I added the classroom jobs and their descriptions to the one column and in the others, each class got their own column. Within each column, I separated the classes by section or period. I then laminated all the papers and hung them up on the bulletin board in the front of the classroom. After I have students apply, I can write their name, first name and last initial, under their class and section with whiteboard markers. At the end of each quarter, I can wipe it off and write the new students' names down next to their jobs on the chart. I think it should work pretty slick, but time will tell. Sometimes I think things will work a certain way but when you apply students to the mix it doesn't work as I planned. Later this year I will have to write another post to let you all know how it's working in my classes!
The new school year is fast approaching! I'm sure some of you have already started. This is my last week of "freedom" then next week is workshops and the week after that we start school already. Thankfully the first week is only three days because of labor day. I can't believe it has come so quickly. I am ready and not ready at the same time. AWE!!! It's year 2 for me! I feel not as prepared as I would like to be, but I know I am way more prepared than I was last year so I am happy about that. I keep having dreams about things not going well or me not being ready or my tables being switched with desks without my permission. It's ridiculous but at least this year I have an idea of what to expect this year which is comforting, the unknown is stressful. I also will not be attending school myself while teaching so that is going to be great to be able to focus on my teaching and curriculum this year. Overall I'm looking forward to year 2. I think it will be a good one.
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I do not remember where I found this idea anymore, but I know that it is an awesome idea & I love it! I implemented this policy during the second half of my first year when I was fed up with answering the same simple question 10 times because students were not paying attention. I mostly use this policy for questions like... "What page are we on?" "What did we do yesterday? I was gone." "What are we doing today?" "I lost the handout from yesterday. I can get another one?" "Where are the scissors?" These types of questions drive me crazy because if a student simply took the time to look or pay attention, the answer is usually right there. For example, all of the questions above have answers that students could easily find on a calendar slip, written on the Agenda (I include page numbers on my agenda), by asking a classmate who was present or paying attention, by looking at their class's weekly document on the class website, or by using/reading the labels on the SC.
The key to using this policy is that you have the answers somewhere so that students are able to find them. How I manage this in my classroom is by having page numbers written on the Agenda, posting daily calendar slips, making sure each class's weekly online document is updated, including directions on the board or slides, and then saying it a least once out loud (often times I repeat it a few times intentionally and have my students repeat it too). At the beginning of the school year, I gave only verbal directions and it never went well for me. So after a few times of struggling through that I started to make sure that I had directions written in at least one place in my classroom for students to be able to see/find. Another reason I like this policy is that it works well with my classroom set up. The Student Center (SC), Extras Binder, Class Website, Calendar Board with calendar slips were all created so that students would be able to do things on their own. I will have a separate post on the details of all these things soon! Below is a picture of the policy from my syllabus where I explain the C3B4Me policy. As you can see at the end I wanted to emphasize that it's not that I don't want to help my students or answer their questions. To me, this policy is about teaching my students to take initiative, rather than relying on me to do or solve everything for them. I also want them to listen/pay attention the first time (because if you keep repeating things students learn tune you out because they know you will say it again so there is no need for them to pay attention the first time) and also how to use resources that they have available to them. Last year after I implemented this policy I did not have an issue with students not feeling comfortable asking questions but I wanted to make it clear that students can ask me questions. How this policy works in my classroom is that if a student asks a question that falls in the lines where students could answer it themselves by using a resource or asking a classmate such as any of the questions above, I tell the student "C3B4Me" and they usually figure out the answer on their own using one of the resources I have available for them to use. Many times students would politely say C3B4Me to another classmate if they asked a question such as what page something is on after I had said it and written it on the board. This policy worked really well with students getting makeup work. Before implementing C3B4Me, my students would ask me what they missed and never bother to use any of the resources I was spending time putting together for them. After implementation the students started to automatically do it on their own without even asking me because when they would ask me I would just say "C3B4Me" or "Did you look on the calendar board, online or talked to a classmate?" and if they said no I would tell them to start there and then if they still had questions they could come talk to me. Its beautiful! I know it has been a while since I've written on here, but life got busy and it is summertime so my work on school stuff slowed down. However, now that there is only a month, actually less than a month (CRAZINESS), until school begins I realized there is a lot that still needs to be done. Today I got back into my classroom and got some more work done. I have the set up pretty well done from earlier this summer, but now it's the finishing details which always take longer. I'm still waiting on a few things to be done to my room including getting my calendar board hung up, my projector installed, and getting my computer hooked up. Regardless I got a lot done today. Once the school year starts I hope to get more posts on here because I have a ton to share, I just need to take pictures of it and write about it! I am so excited to share my ideas with you all on here so just be patient with me, I promise I didn't stop posting! As a sign of good faith, below is a preview of my soon to come classroom reveal. Enjoy your last few weeks of summer vacation everyone & keep checking back! There are many more posts to come in the next few weeks as I get things finished up for the beginning of the school year.
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AuthorI teach 7-9 Health Education & Computer 7 in rural southwestern Minnesota. I love using technology in my classroom and teaching students about how to live healthy and informed lives.
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