Classroom Jobs for Students

Classrooms have many moving parts. There are so many tasks that happen in just a single day. Having students help with these tasks can be really beneficial. The start of the school year is the perfect time to create a list of classroom jobs for students in your classroom.

The benefits of assigning classroom jobs

There are quite a few benefits to assigning classroom jobs. 

• They provide the students with leadership opportunities. This helps students develop a sense of responsibility and learning how to take charge. 
• It helps alleviate some of the teacher’s responsibilities. Teachers have hundreds of tasks and decisions to make in a day. Having students help with these tasks can help lessen the load on the teacher.
• Getting students to help out in the classroom can also help the classroom run more smoothly. Having multiple students working on different tasks can help the classroom run more efficiently.

Jobs for students

There are quite a few jobs you can assign to students. Here are some great options for upper elementary students.

• Line Leader: Leads the class to their destination. The benefit of having a line leader is that they learn the “stopping” spots on the way. This helps manage the movement of the class effectively from one place in the school to another.
• Light Monitor: Turns the lights on and off. They will do so when you exit and enter the classroom, when you are projecting on the board, during Flashlight Fridays, or any other time you dim the lights in the classroom. 
• Technician: Assists with technology and confirms that equipment is turned off correctly. In our classroom, the technician helped students put the laptops away in an organized fashion. This helped ensure that computers were charging correctly.
• Paper Passer: Distributes paper. This is a total time saver, especially if you teach them how to count out papers to give to the captain of each group. The captain then distributes the small pile to their group. 
• Date Changer: Changes the date on the calendar and/or board. Gone are the days of forgetting to update the calendar if you have a date changer. While we get so busy and often forget, the date changer will always remember. 
• Paper Filer: Files the papers. If you have a system set up, you may not need one, but in our classroom, we would do “Silent Mailman” every couple of weeks. The paper filer then would call up students to file their papers away.
• Librarian: Assist in organizing the classroom library. While many students know where to return their books, sometimes they are in a hurry and just drop it off in the drop box. The librarian can put those away. The librarian can also do a weekly check of books that have been checked out by checking the library log. 
• Healthy Hands Helper: Provides hand sanitizer to students. With so many illnesses going around, having a student assigned to distributing hand sanitizer can be helpful. They can have assigned times to distribute it such as coming back from recess or heading out to the cafeteria. 
• Floor Sweeper: Sweeps the classroom floor. At the end of the day, the classroom floor can look like quite a mess. Having a students quickly sweep high traffic areas can be helpful. They can also be responsible for picking up stray pencils and placing them in the community pencil box.
• Duster: Dusts the furniture and shelves. Having a student once a week go by with a feather duster can help keep the classroom dust free.
• Phone Greeter: Answers the classroom phone. This is one of the most requested jobs. Students love to answer the phone. This is a great opportunity to post a greeting next to the phone to teach students how to properly greet someone. 
• Water Monitor: Monitors the use the of the water fountain. They can hold the handle of the water fountain, or count as students drink water to make sure they aren’t taking too long at the fountain.
• Mail Carrier: Places items in students’ mailboxes. If you do not have mailboxes in the classroom, you can have the person be the “runner.” They can go pick up flyers in the office when the school asks every class to send a student over. 
• Window Monitor: Assists with windows and window shades. Many times you want to project something on the board or have a Flashlight Friday. This student can be responsible for closing the window shades, so you can continue to set up for the activity.
• First Aid Assistant: Walks with the sick or injured student to the clinic or office. 
• Homework Checker: Checks each students’ homework assignment for completion.
• Waste Management: Responsible for throwing out trash. We all have times where we incorporate cutting activities. Instead of having everyone stand up to throw their trash away, this student walks around with the trash can.
• Messenger: Delivers messages to the office or other classrooms. This is usually a fan favorite when it comes to classroom jobs. 
• Pencil Sharpener: Sharpens dull pencils at the start or end of the day. This is helpful if you have community pencils. It helps alleviate disruption while you’re teaching.
• Attendance Assistant: Reminds and helps the teacher with attendance. No more forgetting attendance with this helper. 
• Supply Distributor: Distributes the supplies needed for a particular lesson or activity. If the lesson calls for scissors and glue, the supply distributor can pass them out to their classmates.
• Pet Caregiver: Feeds and cares for the class pet. This student can be responsible for feeding it and helping you clean out its habitat at the end of the week.
• Plant Caregiver: Waters the plants in the classroom. They can also give you a report if they see a plant isn’t doing well.
• Recess Equipment Manager: Carries out and puts away recess equipment. While others can help with this chore if there is a large amount of equipment, this person oversees that everything is brought back and put in its place.
• Line Caboose: Walks at the end of the line and makes sure every is in line. They help you make sure no one is left behind in the classroom or the area you are leaving.
• Time Monitor: Monitors the time. While I love to set alarms for everything, it is helpful to have a time monitor. While I work at the teacher led center, the time monitor hits the ‘reset’ button on the board when it’s time to switch centers.
• Desk Inspector: Makes sure tables and desks are clean. This is great when finishing center work or a crafty activity in class. 
• Seat Stacker: Stacks the chairs at the end of the day. This job helps if your custodial staff goes in daily to clean the floors. It helps them get all the areas and helps your classroom stay tidy.
• Photographer: Responsible for taking pictures of class activities. If you have a classroom social media account, share pictures with parents, or put together a slide show at the end of the year, having a class photographer can be helpful. 
• Door Holder: holds the door open for classmates. I usually make this person second in line. This allows them to grab the door quickly wherever we go.

Assigning Jobs

There are different methods to assigning classroom jobs.

Some teachers have students fill out an application for the job and review it. They then select who they think would best complete the job and assign that job for the quarter or even the entire year.

Others change jobs weekly. They randomly select a student and assign them to a job confirming with the student that they are okay with that job.

Lastly, some teachers just rotate the jobs by posting all the jobs and moving the names down one position each week or biweekly.

You may also choose to have each student assigned to a job each week. On the other hand, if that feels unmanageable, you can select a few jobs that will really help you move your class along efficiently. Then, just assign students weekly or biweekly to those positions. 

Displaying Jobs

With so much on our minds, it may be difficult to remember who is assigned to the job. Setting up a classroom jobs display is a great way to keep track of who is currently responsible for that position.

I like to keep print and laminate students names at the start of the school year. Then, I display them next to the job title. Since I work in a departmentalized setting, I place the a.m. students’ names on the left and the p.m. students’ names on the right. 

You can choose to use assign numbers to your students if that is how you organize the rest of your classroom. 

I hope that this list of classroom jobs for students and suggestions for assigning and displaying jobs helps give you some ideas for running your classroom. Whichever one you choose, just make sure to have some assistance in your classroom. It will definitely help you feel less overwhelmed.