How many of us love having classroom jobs? How many of us hate having classroom jobs? Here’s my classroom jobs experience: I remember being in elementary school and every Monday the highlight was coming into the classroom to see what your classroom job might be. And I also remember the disappointment of not having a class job or not having one of the good jobs. Flash forward to the start of my teaching career. I agonized over the perfect class jobs chart. I even made sure to come up with 20 jobs so everyone had a job each week. Can we say stressful and exhausting? And let’s not forget remember to change the jobs each week…
Who Does The Classroom Belong To?
So, flash forward a few years and my philosophy shifted and now life is good! You see, I realized that it wasn’t my classroom. And it wasn’t my mess and it’s not my stuff. The classroom and the stuff and the messes belong to my students and to me. It belongs to all of us! It should be the responsibility of each of us to take care of the classroom! I wanted to teach my students to be responsible for THEIR classroom. Thus was born the BOSS OF THE DAY! No more classroom jobs stress and we’re learning a priceless life lesson!
What Is The Boss Of The Day?
It’s simple. The Boss Of The Day is one student who gets to be the line leader, the morning message helper, the calendar helper and they get to use the trampoline as their seat! Being the Boss Of The Day also means you get to pick the color of our classroom lighting! This allows a student to get special attention each day while everyone else is responsible for the classroom!
How Do You Pick The Boss Of The Day?
Again! Work smarter….not harder. I simply go down the class roster. The list is posted in the front of the class so I can easily glance at the list and know who is the Boss! I explain this process to the students so they don’t get upset if it’s not their day and they don’t ask for a turn! They know they will get lots of turns to be the boss!
The best part? The students are quickly able to figure out the list and they can predict who the Boss is the next day and they start figuring out when their next boss day might be!
Check out this post for more information on our classroom management:
For more information on our classroom lighting, check out this post:
For on our classroom calendar time, check out this post:
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12 comments
Can you share where you got your chart stand/ easel? That’s what I’m looking for!
I got it from DonorsChoose
I love the idea of boss of the day but I’m not sure how one child can be line leader and door holder? I have twenty students this year and they cannot remember their jobs. I think boss of the day is a genius idea!
Simple, they get to the door first and hold it until everyone walks through!
Does the boss of the day carry the lunch basket alone (if y’all do that)? Wondered how I could make this work in my classroom while still needing two students to carry the lunch basket to the cafeteria!
Use a hamper with wheels. Target has a nice one.
I’m guessing that perhaps the boss of the day can choose someone. It would be a great opportunity to see trends in friendships also.
Could your Boss of the Day choose an assistant for this task (and any other that you might need 2 students)? I think that would work in my room.
Sure could!
Taylor, let the boss of the day choose a helper.
What do you do is your Boss is absent? Just go to next on the roster?
Yes! They miss their turn and they have to wait until it’s their turn again!