I have 6 jobs in my room- one for each color group in my class. The students are assigned to a color team according to where they sit in the classroom, and we have actually rolled out the team system building-wide in a quasi-Harry Potter house system, where we do team-building activities and contests by team (so the students on the red team in every class work together), and it has been fantastic (read more about my color teams here). I assigned a job to each team and switch the jobs halfway through each trimester, so everyone will do each job once by the end of the year.
My 6 jobs are: teacher helper, line leader, supplies, cleanup, attendance, and compliment. Teacher helpers do any odd jobs that come up- closing the door, running an errand, turning off the lights, etc. The line leader team is the first to line up at the end of class (read about my end of class procedures here). The supplies team passes out supplies like pencils, clipboards, mallets, and papers, and the cleanup team cleans up those supplies when we're done. The attendance team doesn't actually take official attendance- I don't record attendance in my room- but when students are missing I ask them to find out if they are absent, in the bathroom, or somewhere else (to make sure I have everyone in my room that I should!).
The compliment job is my favorite. I give out a happy note to one student at the end of each class (read more about that here) and it has been my number-one motivator and community builder since I started the system almost 2 years ago. This year I decided that, instead of just receiving compliments from me, students should be practicing giving compliments to each other as well. At the beginning of the year I explained that, at the end of each class, someone from the compliment team would be responsible for giving a specific compliment to someone else who is not on their team. I made the compliment open to anything they wanted- clothing, general personality traits, things they did in music class, or anything else that they knew the person would appreciate hearing. So far the students have been doing pretty well! And I am noticing that they are getting better at being specific in their compliments, and the students look forward to the compliment each day almost as much as they do the happy note :)
The students take their jobs very seriously. There are several classes where the compliment team will start whispering to each other, deciding on who and what to compliment, as we are lining up. If I ever fall back into my old ways and start passing out supplies, the supply team will actually get offended and insist that they should be handing them out! It does sometimes take more time initially when they are learning how to pass things out or how to give a compliment, but I think overall it has actually saved time because I can take care of other things while they help out. More importantly, the students are working together and contributing to the music classroom community, and that is building respect for each other and for the things we use, and it is building self-esteem and cooperation as well. I'd call that a win!
Do you use classroom jobs in your music classroom? I'd love to hear which ones you use as well- share your ideas in the comments below!
Love, love, love your compliment idea!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe kids are really starting to get into it and they remind me if I'm ever in a hurry and forget! :)
DeleteLove ALL of your ideas! I would love to pick you brain! Lol.
ReplyDeleteAw thank you!
DeleteI have enjoyed reading articles on your blog. Your ideas are wonderful! How do you keep track of which student has which job and in which class? Do you use a cheating chart to help you keep track of which student has which job? Your help would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteHi! I assign each "team" (or group of students) to a job and then rotate them halfway through each trimester so everyone does all the jobs before the end of the year (I have 6 groups). So all of the "green team" students have the same job in every class for that period.
DeleteDo you rotate students in seats so they are now a new color or do you rotate the jobs on the colored paper so the students remain the same color all year? Ours isn't school wide so I'm trying to decide how to best incorporate this. I do like to move seats around a few times a year (we have 4 marking periods) and find I have to for behavior issues as well. I'm thinking of just shifting vertical lines of students over from one color to the next on the rug every 6 classes or so to ensure those who need to remain in the front to learn better are still in the front. Any ideas?
DeleteIf you like to change seats anyway, then I think it would work well to move the students instead of the jobs. It would probably also be easier for you to keep track of who does what. I have always kept students in the same seats once I get them where I want them, so I rotate the magnets on the board and the students stay in the same colors all year.
DeleteThis is a great idea! I think I'll give it a try in my classroom this year.
ReplyDeleteI have really enjoyed this system- let me know how it goes for yoU! :)
DeleteDo you tell the compliment team who they need to compliment so people don't get left out?
ReplyDeleteNo. I make the rounds with my happy notes, so I don't worry too much about that aspect. Part of what I want them to learn is to be happy for them when other people get a compliment. To be honest though, most kids look forward to giving the compliment more than receiving one, and everyone gets a turn at that :)
DeleteMay I ask what the "happy notes" are?
DeleteHere's the post I did on happy notes (sorry for missing this question before- hopefully you and others will see my reply! better late than never?): http://caldwellorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/2014/09/teacher-tuesday-behavior-management.html
DeleteWith so many students and classes how do you mark on the Helper board who is doing what? I would love to implement this but I teach K-3 and have over 400 students.
ReplyDeleteReplyDelete
I don't assign individual students to the jobs- the whole color group shares the job. There is no way I could keep track of that many students (I have around 350)!
DeleteYes, I figured. I then realized that you have tape down on the floor that color codes with the jobs. Mine sit on a carpet with colored squares but we only have 5. I was able to modify for us. Hoping this works well this year. Thank you for the idea!
DeleteI hope it works well for you!
DeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteI LOVE your ideas and I'm so happy to have found your page!
ReplyDeleteDo you use the job board for all grades? I teach K - 6.
Thank you Becky! I teach K-6 and use it with everyone except K.
DeleteMay I ask why you only use it for grades 1-6? I am moving to a new school (coming from only teaching grades 1-3) and looking to implement a class system like this. I am just curious why you leave K out.
DeleteTo clarify my post, I am moving to a K-5 campus.
DeleteI just find my kinders aren't ready for it yet. There are SO many fundamental musical and behavioral skills I'm working on with them that this just complicates things too much. I also don't do the "MUSIC" letter system with them, nor do I do centers as a whole-class reward like I do with the other grades. I do give a "happy note" to 1 student each class, and I do move their class up the piano keys each class depending on how they do overall, but rather than the complicated letter system I just tell them they either get 1 key for "good", 2 for "great", or 3 for "awesome". They get 2 keys most of the time- so many "misbehaviors" at this age are just from ignorance/inexperience. Plus it gives something cool and grownup for the 1st graders ;)
DeleteThank you! That makes sense. I felt that way with my first graders this year!
DeleteWhat is the MUSIC letter system?
It's just a concrete way of tracking whole-class behavior. Here's my post on it: http://caldwellorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/2014/07/teacher-tuesday-behavior-management.html
DeleteWhat would you do with a class of 10 or a class of 44? I had each one of these back to back last year. My smallest class next to my largest class. I would really love to implement this but I don't know if I need all the teams every class...do you make up things for them to do? I also don't know how to divide the kids if there are too many or too few?
ReplyDeleteGoodness. Do you see the class of 44 in small groups? I ask because I have large chorus classes but I see those kids in general music in small groups as well. If I need something done I get someone who knows their job from general music- I don't assign the larger classes specifically to jobs. I don't know what I would do about assigning jobs for that large of a class... maybe I would split into 12 groups- like red 1, red, 2, orange 1, orange 2 etc and then have all the 1's do the jobs for a few weeks and then all the 2's? For the smaller classes I just assign the students to fewer colors- like just the primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and they do whatever jobs their color is on for the other classes. If I need things done that are not one of their "jobs" they are always willing to do extra ;)
DeleteThank you so much! I am wondering what happens with the line leader group? Do they all take turns being the leader of the line after music? Is this the same with taking attendance? Do they all take turns each week?
ReplyDeleteI treat that as jbs for the group as a whole, so generally they do their jobs collaboratively. So for line leader that means the whole group is at the front of the line, whatever order they may be in within the group, and for attendance, I ask the group as a whole and whoever knows answers. I'm always looking for more ways to force them to practice teamwork!!! ;) The line leader thing may make more sense if you know how I line the class up at the end of each class- here's my post on that if you haven't seen it: http://caldwellorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/2015/03/teacher-tuesday-routines-for-end-of.html
DeleteI read this post last year and it inspired me to do jobs in my room this year and I LOVED IT!!!!!:) It gave me the freedom particularly to start and end class sometimes with busy stuff, like speaking individually to a student or changing out materials. I also added a job that became a favorite (of mine and the students'). I added the job of computer and taught students how to operate iTunes. While I was starting class, the computer person would choose a song to end the class with. While we were lining up, this person started the song to leave on. The catch was that they could either leave my class silently or silently while listening to a song. They loved it and were silent lining up 98% of the time to hear what the song was! They also came into my class smiling and dancing as they listened to what the last class had chosen. The only issue I ran into was that when I was using iTunes in class, I either had to remember what song the student chose, or have them find it again at the end.
ReplyDeleteLove the idea of letting students choose a song to play at the beginning and end- what a fun way to give them independence and also make the transition smoother and more musical!! Love it. So glad the jobs worked for you this year. I have been tweaking my jobs every year since I started them and will probably be adjusting them again this year- I might have to consider doing something like yours next! Thank you so much for commenting and sharing :)
DeleteDo you have a file to print out these cute minion signs? I'm implementing your chore chart color system this year.....
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately no- that would be against copyright! But they are not that difficult to put together with an image and some text.
DeleteHi Elizabeth! Your posts have really inspired me to change some of my systems for this school year.
ReplyDeleteI am looking to implement the rotating jobs like you have for your students. My art teacher has jobs too, but she names them based upon actual art careers. So, I thought it would be an extra bonus to use music careers for job names. Right now, I have the following:
Roadie: Supplies
Staff Publicist: Compliment
Music Intern: Teacher Helper
Advance Agent: Line Leaders
Lighting Technician: Lights (We do a lot of turning lights on and off with my smartboard set-up)
I think this year, I would like to try attendance instead of peacemaker. Any ideas for a cool thing to call it?
Fun idea! Maybe they could be called the house manager, or something with ticket sales?
DeleteHello! Thank you so much for all of these great ideas! I'm really looking forwards to starting a system like this with my classes next week. I use color pods (sit spots on the floor in groups of 4) that are very similar to your chairs. I love the idea of a color group having a job for a couple weeks to reduce how much you have to keep track of. However, how do you handle who does what job each time? I foresee many an argument of "so and so had more turns than me" and such? Do you have a rotation system in place? Looking to set up clear expectations for my students. Thank you again!
ReplyDeleteHi! I have the jobs set up so that they can do them together. The line leader team is the first TEAM to line up and lead the rest of the class to the door. Everyone on the compliment team gives a compliment at the end of every class. The warmup leaders (a new job I use now- I have separate posts on that if you're interested) ALL help lead the warmup every time. The supplies team all hand things out together, the cleanup team all help put things away together. I suppose the "teacher helper" job is the one where they are often taking turns, but there are so many little things I have them do (turn the lights on/off, close the door, remove/ add letters from my management board, etc) that I think I am able to rotate through them pretty well and make sure they get turns. I've honestly never had any problem with people arguing- the only one I've had to explicitly explain is the line leader job. I make sure I explain that they are the TEAM leading the line, and they get it.
DeleteIf you have any other questions as you get it ready to start in your room please email me! caldwell.organized.chaos@gmail.com
Delete