Like every teacher, it takes a few years to solidify your class leadership roles, also called class jobs. You make tweaks and changes along the way until you find your system. I’ll save you the years of trial and error and share with you my system that makes my students work harder and ensures I am working smarter. It builds our class community and keeps our classroom running smoothly, a win-win for everyone!
Class Leadership Role Guidelines:
Every student gets a leadership role. Sometimes more than one!
Your students are a part of the classroom. Not YOUR classroom or THEIR classroom, the classroom. It is both yours and theirs. It is the space you share- primarily yours but also theirs. For students to feel ownership of the space, they need to have a part in taking care of the space. Giving students a role helps build culture, community, and buy-in. Respect for the space increases and you’ll even notice students take better care of the materials as they feel more tied to them.
At first, it was difficult to come up with 20 leadership roles but then it become difficult to only have 20 leadership roles, I have more! Once I started giving students more roles and I saw how willing they were to help, how they WANTED to help. I saw that sense of pride on their faces when the pencil sharpener walked in the room, unpacked quickly, so she could begin her role of ensuring we had sharpened pencils for the day. And the icing on the cake, so many small tasks were lifted off my shoulders. I no longer needed to update the calendar each morning, turn on the computers, pass out the newsletter. I could focus on saying ‘Good Morning’ to my students as they walk in, preparing my lessons, or even grading papers I no longer take home to grade.
Leadership roles change. Sometimes yearly, quarterly, or weekly.
Your class leadership roles should be working for you. If you ever find yourself doing a task that a student could do, that is when a new leadership role can be formed. If you ever find a job that is too much work for you, drives you crazy, or is just a hassle then get rid of the job.
For example, I once had a ‘water counter.’ This student would count to 10 when each student was getting water after recess. I’ll spare you the details but this job was more hassle than helpful even if the best-behaved student had that role. Some students just want more than 10 seconds of water after playing outside in the Florida heat. I took away that leadership role, it drove me bananas. No more water counter. The students as not fired but the role needed to be changed.
My students and I brainstormed and a new role was has born: table caller. A student called table groups to get water and students could get water for as long as they wanted (it was never very long). When they sat down, a new table group got up. It was a much quieter and smooth transition rather than hearing a student counting to 10 over and over and over and over.
Students get new roles/jobs each quarter which they apply for.
I have had students switch jobs daily, weekly, monthly, and finally, I tried quarterly. Quarterly works best and makes class roles/jobs much easier to manage. First, students become great at their job since they have the opportunity to own it, refine it, make it their own. They also actually remember their job 😉 Students fill out an application to apply for what job they would like. This takes time. I treat it like a job application, they shouldn’t rush. Since I am spending class time having students fill out a job application, I want it to be purposeful. Doing it 4 times a year makes it more meaningful, taken seriously, and doesn’t waste too much class time. Students also really look forward to this time which creates much anticipation. When students have their job for an entire quarter, they become good at it which also helps the class run much smoother.
Students help create the leadership roles and the expectations of that role.
Do I already have a list of class jobs created? Yes. Do I still hold a class meeting where I declare my students as leaders and announce that are each going to have a very important leadership role in our class in a strong, bold voice. Yes, yes I do.
I ask them what ideas they have for leadership roles. Students raise their hands. They say roles like line leader, door holder, pencil sharper. I say, “Oh! Those are great ideas! And I write them down so all students can see them. We use this list that we create together and those become our leadership roles. I probe and scaffold just like teachers do with most lessons. On my paper of all my leadership roles I have thought of, I slowly check them off as students name them and we write them on the anchor chart. If one role is not yet named I might say, “I notice it takes a long time for me to pass out papers, I wonder if we could make a job that could help speed that up.” A student then suggests a paper-passer-outer. I say, “Oh that would be so helpful, what if we had two paper-passer-outers? One for each side of the room.” The students agree we add it to the list.
When students say a job I might not have thought of, I stay open to the idea. I write it down on the anchor chart. Sometimes we use it and sometimes I end up not assigning a student that role and it falls to the wayside.
