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 to remember to change 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; 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, and the calendar helper. They pick our class cheer, 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 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 the Boss is! I explain this process to the students so they don’t get upset if it’s not their day and don’t ask for a turn! They know they will get lots of turns to be the boss!
The best part? The students can quickly figure out the list, predict who the Boss is the next day, and start figuring out when their next boss day might be!
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