Elementary Music Classroom Student Jobs

Giving students jobs is a great way to give them a sense of ownership and responsibility in the classroom, but the traditional way elementary homeroom teachers use them won't work for music, art, PE, and other subject specialists because with hundreds of students to teach and dozens of classes there's no way we can keep track if we assign each student to a specific job! I came up with a different way to assign jobs that makes sure everyone has a job, but makes it incredibly easy for me to manage, and they genuinely make my life easier and help class run more smoothly! I've written about my system a few times but I've made some changes in recent years so I decided it's time for an update.

The basic idea is that I split up the class into color teams based on their assigned seats (I use color teams for so many things- read about those here), and each team has a job (rather than assigning individual students to each job). I have 6 teams, so I rotate the jobs every half of a trimester so everyone does each job one time over the course of the year. This makes it so much easier for me because I only have to remember 6 jobs, and I can use the same job assignments for every class in the whole school! 

Over the course of the last 10 years using classroom jobs, I have changed the jobs that I have a few times. I've now been using the same jobs for several years and I feel confident that these are the ones that work best for me:

Teacher Helper- help with random things (turn off lights/ close door/ run an errand/ etc)

Warmup Leader- lead the warmup activity at the beginning of each lesson (read more about how I start class with student-led warmups in this post)

Supplies- hand out things like pencils, instruments, papers etc

Cleanup- collect things like pencils, instruments, papers etc

Line Leader- lead the class to the door at the end of class (read more about my specific lineup procedure and my end of class procedures in this post)

Compliment- give another student a compliment at the end of class (they each have to pick someone not on their team and say something specific and positive- it doesn't have to be about music class)

Other jobs I've used over the years include Sanitizer (during covid), Attendance (to let me know where any missing students are), and Peace Keeper (to help with any students who are upset etc). I've found those responsibilities work better as general things I ask someone to do as needed rather than an assigned job, especially when it's assigned to a small group.

When they are done well, having classroom jobs not only gives students a sense of ownership and responsibility but it genuinely makes my job easier and helps transitions run more smoothly and quickly. The keys to making them work so they aren't more trouble than helpful are to give students opportunities to practice and learn how to do their jobs at the beginning of each rotation, and to plan out transitions and procedures with the idea in mind that students will be helping with those tasks. 

Giving students time to practice is especially important for the supplies and cleanup jobs, because the students need to know where things go and how they are supposed to be carried correctly (especially if it's instruments). I have to remind myself, each time something new comes up, to be very specific in explaining how to get things out/ put them away, and be patient as they do it a little more slowly the first time or two (especially in the younger grades). The nice thing is once they get it, I can have students handing out supplies while I'm giving directions, other students are moving into position for the next activity, etc and it all moves much more smoothly and quickly while also giving students a much greater sense of ownership.

I've found one of the best ways to help these student-led transitions go smoothly and quickly is to think about where and how I'm storing things to make them easy for students to find and maintain. Having things organized by color teams (as explained in this blog post) and stored on open shelving at accessible heights for students (I explain my thought process on that in this post) makes it so much easier for students to actually get out and put away things independently.

Similarly with the warmups, I plan out the warmup activities based on what I know students can easily lead without me having to give a lot of explanation or help, and I try to remember to make sure they know how to do something when it is their first time, which usually just means I model it for them first and then have them come and take over. It doesn't take a lot of time at all if the activity is straight-forward- this post has all of the different simple activities I use so that they can successfully be student-led.

If you have any questions about how I do student jobs in my elementary music classes, please leave a comment and I'd be happy to get back to you! I really think they have made a positive difference in my classes and I am so happy with how they work.