You're Hired! Building Community with Classroom Jobs

No matter how long you have been teaching, whether this is your first year or you've been teaching for a dozen, one of the most important things you can do to support classroom management and help your school year go smoothly is to build a strong rapport with your students and a sense of community in your classroom.  There are a hundred different things you can do to accomplish this such as holding class meetings, spending time on get-to-know-you activities the first week of school, and having clear expectations and consequences.

Today I want to talk to you about another classroom routine that not only builds a sense of teamwork in your classroom, but also helps you, the teacher, keep your classroom organized and clean.

I'm talking about classroom jobs.  Classroom jobs are a great way to help your students develop a sense of community and teamwork.  When all your students have one small task to complete each day, they begin to see that when everyone puts in that little bit of effort the class runs more smoothly, stays organized, is more conducive to learning, and is a more pleasant place to spend their day.  As students complete their jobs and are recognized for their effort it builds self esteem and helps to establish a strong work ethic.

The key here is to make sure that every one of yours students has a classroom job that they are interested in, proud of, and are capable of completing successfully.

Try to phrase your job titles in ways that make them sound interesting and important.  For example, Recycling Manager sounds much more important that just recycler.  Light Monitor more esteemed than light person.  And Class Botanist more official than gardener.  You want students to be proud of their positions and giving them powerful job titles is one way to do that.

Giving students choices is important to building relationships and community.   Rather than just assigning jobs to students randomly, it is a good idea to give students a chance to choose which jobs they would like to do.  Classified ads are a great way to give your students some information about each of the jobs.  Each job has a short description so that students understand what will be expected of them if they get hired for that position.  I plan on making several copies of these classified ads and give students time to read through them and circle jobs that are interesting to them.  I also plan on keeping a clean copy on display near my job chart so that the descriptions are easily available for reference throughout the year.

Undoubtably,  there will be some jobs that everyone wants and a few that nobody is interested in. This is when having an Employment Application will come in handy.  In the past, I've written all of the job titles on a large sheet of butcher paper and students wrote their names under the three job titles that they were interested in.  I'd go through and choose a person for each job.  This year,  I want my students to give more thought into what skills they have that would make them the best person for the job that they want.  I plan on asking each of my students to fill out the application with their top two choices.  This will not only give me some information about my students while I am hiring, but it will also give my kiddos practice with the real world task of filling out forms.

Click on the image to get a free download of the Classroom Employment Application

Hold students accountable for their jobs.  In my class, I have two students who are my "Job Supervisors".  These two students check off  workers as they complete their jobs each day.  This is important because we have a classroom economy and students get paychecks each month for their clean-up jobs.  To help keep track of student positions and to help hold students accountable for their responsibilities, this chart is vital.

I will be writing another blog post on our classroom economy, but for now I will say that I have found rewarding students for their hard work is an important part of this learning experience.  As adults, we get paid for our work.  I look forward to my paycheck and I enjoy spending my hard earned money.  The same can be said for our students.  They should be recognized for their efforts.  You don't have to have a classroom economy.  There are a lot of different ways you can show appreciation.  You can have lunch in the classroom, indoor recess, a board game party, and the list goes on.  It is just important to let students know that their contribution to keeping the class clean and running smoothly is appreciated.


Classroom jobs may look differently depending on the grade level you teach, but no matter what age your students are, a small task for each student can be beneficial for all involved, including the teacher.  I teach 4th grade and the help my students give me helps me keep my sanity!  My students collect papers, deliver mail, change the daily schedule, make sure the calendar is up to date, sweep the floor, take out the trash, make sure absent students get missing work, make sure the lights are on and off...  and the list goes on.  All of these things I'd have to do myself if it wasn't for their help.  And because every student is helping, our clean-up time is only about 5-10 minutes each day!

If you aren't fully using the power of classroom jobs in with your students, I hope you will consider it.  Like I mentioned above, it might look differently in your class than in mine, but hiring each of your students for one small task a day will not only keep your classroom clean and organized, but it will also have many positive benefits for your students.

If you have more ideas, different suggestions, or questions about how I run classroom jobs with my students, please feel free to use the comment section below!  I'd love to hear from you.

If you'd like to know more about my Classroom Jobs Starter Pack, click on the image below to open a new window to the product description on TeachersPayTeachers.com .

Classroom Jobs Starter Pack {Editable}

Thank you so much for reading my post!  For more great Back-to-School management and organizational tips, hop on to the next blog post by Teacher Erica.

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