How to Use Student Jobs in the Classroom

Classroom jobs blog post with girl student

Classroom jobs are great to have, but they do require some planning and thought, especially if you want them to be more than just fun, but also beneficial. You can use student jobs in the classroom to create community, practice responsibility, encourage leadership, and create an environment that is welcoming and tidy. Read on to learn exactly how to run classroom jobs effectively with your elementary students.

Benefits of Student Jobs

There are so many benefits to having student jobs. They are truly more than just something fun that most classrooms have. Student jobs serve a purpose both educationally and socially. Some of the benefits of classroom jobs are:

  • Jobs teach students to practice responsibility by taking their duties seriously.
  • Students learn essential leadership skills as they assume their job roles. This also prepares them for future jobs.
  • The classroom environment is welcoming, neat, and tidy.
  • There is a sense of community and teamwork in the classroom when everyone does their job correctly and takes pride in it.
  • BONUS: It helps the teacher to have students take care of jobs appropriate for their abilities.

Decide What Jobs You Want to Use

Choosing student jobs-stack of different classroom jobs

The first step in getting classroom jobs up and running smoothly is choosing which jobs you want to use. Every classroom may look different, and that’s perfectly fine! Think about the tasks that you as the teacher would have to take care of each day. Then, think about which of these tasks would be appropriate for your students to be in charge of. Of course, tasks like grading papers and attending meetings won’t make the cut, but many other jobs will. The Classroom Jobs resource shown above comes with a variety of job choices as well as editable templates to create your own jobs to fit your unique classroom.

Display Jobs in a Clear Way

Display of student classroom jobs

Once you have chosen the classroom jobs that your students will help with, it is important to display them clearly so that your students can see their job. I like to use my students’ class number to place next to their jobs. This allows them to see exactly which job they have today and which job will be coming up. Another benefit of displaying the jobs clearly is student accountability. If a student forgets to do their job, you or another student may ask them to check the jobs board. If a student needs help or is absent, another student can jump in and help. This also teaches teamwork!

Explicitly Teach Each Job and Review Daily

Teaching student jobs with job description cards

Just like with a real job, teaching students how to do their job correctly, what responsibilities they have, and why that job is needed is essential. This helps them understand the purpose of the job and just how important their role is. Explicitly teaching students how to perform their job correctly and reviewing this daily helps them understand and follow guidelines. In teaching and reviewing student jobs, they will take more pride in them and their classroom.

Rotate Daily

Rotate student jobs daily on job board

Rotating student jobs on a daily basis is a great practice. When student jobs are rotated weekly, it leaves many students with several days to wait before getting a classroom job. By rotating daily, they are constantly getting to do different jobs, thus, keeping them engaged and growing those leadership and responsibility skills. You may use a numbered system like is shown above, name cards, or even picture cards to represent your students. Whatever system you use already in your classroom will work perfectly with the classroom jobs board. This resource comes with editable name and number cards.

Suggested Resource to Help You Start!

To get your classroom jobs organized and ready to hire students, check out this Editable Classroom Jobs resource below. You will get several options for your classroom jobs and jobs sign, number cards, editable name cards, job description cards, and templates to create your own jobs, descriptions, and student name cards.

Classroom jobs resource-editable

Thanks for reading this blog post all about student jobs!

Student jobs in the classroom blog post

If you’re interested in more classroom management blogs, check these out…

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