Classroom Jobs- (Updated for 2012-2013)

Ever since I read Rafe Esquith's book, Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire, I've gone all out with my own classroom economic system in which every single student applies, interviews, and works a particular job. Like Rafe's economic system, my students work these jobs because they have to earn rent to pay for their desks and participate in wild class auctions each month. Many teachers have asked me if I use my economic system as a behavior management system as well, and the answer is no because I personally do not believe in rewarding students for appropriate, expected behavior. I've heard of other teachers who have succeeded with using their economic systems for behavior management systems as well, and I think that's great for them; although, that just doesn't work for me and my teaching style. 

Similar to Rafe's economic system, students earn money based on their work for one of the jobs listed below; however, they can earn bonus money for doing various things outside of school such as chores (a signed note is required to confirm this), watching educational shows on Animal Planet or the History Channel and writing/blogging about what they learned, writing optional book reports, memorizing math facts and getting 100% on optional quizzes, etc. Earning bonus money helps students earn money above and beyond the income acquired by their class jobs, so they are able to have more expendable income to spend on items during class auctions. 

The following list has evolved immensely since my first year (to see my former classroom job post, click here), and I have to credit mainly Rafe Esquith (along with several online teacher blogs) for the source of inspiration. Some of the ideas are purely mine, some are tweaked from others, and some are exactly what he or someone else uses in his/her classroom. From my mere 4 years experience of implementing this economic system, I have found it takes immense training at the beginning of the year in order for students to take full responsibility of their jobs and become self-regulated. 

For the upcoming school year, I plan to use these jobs as a starting point; however, I'm always flexible with revising the job list as every year, at least a couple students have new ideas to improvise the list.

Clean-up Crew: All members clean up any kind of unclaimed litter in the classroom—including litter during class parties.

- Dust Buster (1): dusts furniture and fake plants (2x week), Windexes windows (1x week), and cleans boards as needed; during class project time, clean tops of desks; at the end of the day, dust all keyboards, light switches, and door handles

- Tidy-Uppers (1): keep all textbooks and dictionaries/thesauruses neatly arranged on shelves; in charge of maintaining log for those who wish to check out any textbooks or dictionaries/thesauruses

One of the shelves the Tidy-Uppers are responsible for keeping neat is this one--underneath the Smartboard.

-  Captains of the Reading Spaces (2): dusts 3x weekly; ensures all 3 spaces are kept orderly by picking up any unclaimed litter and arranging all furniture/rugs/stuffed animals/lamps right before lunch and at the end of the day

One of the three reading spaces the Reading Space Captains are responsible for maintaining.

-  Pet & Plant Patrol (2): feed/water pet; clean cage every Monday during class project time (transfer Lightning to smaller cage, remove cage items, dump out cage shreddings, sanitize with wipes, refill with fresh shreddings, replace Lightning & cage items); in charge of pet permission slips; facilitates weekend sticks (by drawing the name every Wednesday of student who gets to take home pet) & prepares pet for temporary weekend home; waters and maintains plants

Banker Crew: All members balance customers’ accounts and offer sound financial advice as needed.

- Daily Informer (1): after school announcements every morning, reads off the daily scheduler and any other reminders as needed; keeps lunch menu and calendar updated--including holidays and birthdays; updates Desk Fairy poster bi-weekly

Here's the calendar and daily scheduler the Daily Informer uses to do his/her job.

- Class Nurse (1): writes nurse passes; keeps nurse log updated; gets/returns ice packs; and refills Band-Aids

- Energy Savers (2): turns on/off Elmo, projector, Smartboard as needed; at the beginning of the day, turns on any computers and lamps not currently on; at the end of the day, turns off projector, all computers, and all lamps. 

Messenger Crew: All members answer phones (“Hello, Sara Allen’s class, this is __________. How may I help you?.”) and deliver any messages as needed.

- Reading Administrator (1)-STAR Reading/Scholastic Book Orders (2): collects monthly STAR Reading calendars, fills out slip to stick in bucket and pizza coupon to stick in mailboxes, places stickers on chart and prizes in mailboxes; during class project time, tear out Scholastic book orders, label, and place in boxes;

- Administrative Assistant (1): reminds teacher of things to do; keeps track on “To Do” list; retrieves items from printer/mailbox as needed; fills out absence form with subject information; supports absent student upon return; 

- Classroom Librarians (2): ensure books are orderly at the end of each day; keep track of books checked out/returned; keep an updated list of class "book wish-list”; return library books as needed; facilitate the Birthday Book Project-at the beginning of every month, get birthday book selections from students whose birthdays at that month and when books are shipped to class, have students write a "Room 121" dedication note  on inside front cover in honor of their birthday

In addition the duties described above, Classroom Librarians are also the ones who facilitate the organizing and labeling of the books every school year.

Clerical Crew: All members cooperate to collect and pass out papers; put papers in mailboxes.

- Chief Filer/Mail Coordinator (1): files extras into file cabinet and keeps this organized; makes sure mail gets distributed to students and assigns mail jobs to the other members of the clerical crew

This is primarily where the Chief Filer/ Mail Coordinator fulfills his/her duties: the filing cabinet is on the right, and the mail boxes are to the left. However, the Record Keeper uses the "Good Morning" poster located on the filing cabinet to record the lunch count, and the Classroom Librarians also maintain the Book Club book shelves below the mailboxes.

- Math Manager (1): ensures math task option area is neat and orderly (all games and supplies put back in their places; all calculators and white boards neatly arranged on shelf);  updates math task option and math game area as needed

The math supply area is located to the right; this is primarily where the Math Manager will perform his/her duties.

- Record Keeper (1): informs teacher of lunch and milk orders; in charge of attendance slips for quarterly attendance parties; gets snack milk;  collects permission slips and maintains checklist folder;  put papers in 1-24 order.  Pull out “no name/no number” papers and place in folder; record number(s) of the student(s) who did not hand in the assignment on sticky note for teacher and place on top of the pile of papers.  

-Twitter and Hospitality Coordinators (2): tweet general class updates and reminders daily; helps other students learn how to tweet learning reflections as well; plans and organizes "Thank-You", "Get-Well", and "Just Because" cards; collect everyone's signatures and messages for cards; deliver/mail cards  

To follow our class (@room121) on Twitter, CLICK HERE.

- Interior Decorators (2): put up/take down student work; return student work to mailboxes maintain classroom decorations; plan optional take-home holiday decorative crafts

Here's an example from last year where the Interior Decorators put up student
work in the hallway just outside our classroom.

Enforcement Crew: All members write tickets for offenses, update ticket folders, and sign ticket upon receiving customers’ check stapled to it.

- Organizational Officer (1): checks desks on Tuesday/Friday; selects cleanest desks to nominate for "Desk Fairy" award; ensures backpack area is kept orderly; returns items to Lost & Found; in charge of finding owner of misplaced items in class

- Attendance and "No Name/Number" Officer (1): makes sure everyone signs in by 8:05; writes tickets for those who do not sign in on time; returns magnets to original place at the end of the day; in charge of attendance slips for attendance assemblies; collects "No Name/Number" folder on an as needed basis, match papers to owners, and writes tickets for those who claim papers.

- Writing Utensil Officer (1): keeps a box of sharpened pencils for those who forget to sharpen before school; provides pencils for those who need to borrow one during class; writes tickets for students who need to borrow pencil (after 3 freebies have been used) and those who write in pen on non-pen assignments. 

Every year, I teach students how to properly write checks, and I create a set of checks for them to use to pay their rent, pay tickets, and purchase items from class auctions. If you'd like to check out the template I created for student checks, feel free to check it out HERE.

Thanks for reading!