Classroom Jobs: Encouraging Everyone to Lend a Hand

One of the many things that I love about elementary school aged children is their desire to help! Seriously, I don't think I could make it through the week without my wee little one's helping around the classroom! 

Here is a snap shot of our job board, complete with our theme matching cupcakes and little cake pedestals! Eek! Love it!

Above each pedestal is a stikki clip (or two) that allow me to swap out my student names weekly without much hassle.  

Here are the jobs I use in my classroom from left to right: 

Lunch Boxes: these two students carry our bin of lunch boxes to and from the lunchroom

Line Leaders: pretty obvious what they do

Messenger: delivers our hot lunch order to the lunch ladies and carries any other messages for the teacher

Tech Team: responsible for charging up the iPads before we go home

Library Books: carry our return and renew bins to the library

Mailboxes: in charge of managing student mailboxes for the week

Paper Passers: again, pretty obvious

Librarian: keeps our classroom library neat and tidy

Custodian: checks student desks at the end of the day for cleanliness.  Students can earn a 'Smart Cookie' for having a clean desk and a second one for having a clean floor underneath their group on their check-in day

Morning Helpers: pass out 'Smart Cookies' for the previous day's clip-chart, puts all of the clips on green for the beginning of the day, pass out morning work

I also have a Table Manager at each of my five groups.  These students help to pass out supplies from our caddies/baskets and collect papers for the group.  

Here are two sweet little morning helpers working together to pass out morning work and 'Smart Cookies'.  I honestly don't know what I'd do without this classroom job!

If you want to read more about my Smart Cookies you can find it HERE. 

Here is the Tech Team hard at work charging up our iPads for another day!

My students love helping out and believe me, I GREATLY appreciate it.  Classroom jobs also help to strengthen our classroom community and help children to learn how to respect the classroom.  I'm happy to say that my students this year really take pride in having a neat and orderly room.

What kind of classroom jobs can you not imagine living without?

Brownie Points and Smart Cookies: Encouraging Sweet Behavior

Everyone always seems to be looking for that perfect recipe for behavior management in their classroom.  Every classroom, teacher, and student is unique and always requires some sort of modification.  However, I am pleased so far with my current management system and thought I'd share.  These ideas are not my original thoughts...I got by with a little help from my friends out in the bloggy world, in my real world, and Pinterest- duh!

First up is my Clip Chart courtesy of the gorgeous Teri at A Cupcake for the Teacher...I feel like we are kindred spirits with our love of cupcakes in the classroom! :) 

**Please excuse the sleeves of our art smocks hanging out of the chevron bin....and the heinous black trash bin & blue recycle bin.  Not everything has to match and be cute in my classroom...right!? Right.

This is my One Smart Cookie Jar.  As a personal incentive for my students, they can earn "Smart Cookies".  At the beginning of the year I pass these things out like crazy, focusing on positive behavior.  It may seem silly to reward and praise students for pushing in their chairs or walking quietly to their desks...but it works folks! Students can also earn Smart Cookies for actively participating in lessons, working well with others, keeping their desk neat and clean, and it also connects to our Clip Chart. If by the end of the day a student has remained on green, they receive one smart cookie, if they've made it to blue, they've earned two...and so on. 

So, you might be wondering what happens with these cookies.  Well, students collect them in these nifty little Cookie Collectors (another great idea from Teri). The collectors are new to me this year also, I scooped them up in the Dollar Spot at Target this summer.  Last year my students collected their cookies in plastic baggies, which worked fine...but I like how these collectors have pockets to also hold my students Reward Coupons by Mel D. at Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations.  On Fridays I open up the Sweet Shoppe, where students can purchase prizes with their Smart Cookies.  My prizes range from some Oriental Trading finds, pencils, stickers, but the real favorites are Mel's awesome Reward Coupons.  The kids eat them up and I do too because most of them are free! Yea buddy!

As a class incentive we work on earning Brownie Points on this pan...I found this idea on Pinterest two years ago and fell in love with it.  If you know who it belongs to, please tell me and I will gladly give credit!

My students can earn a Brownie Point when everyone in the class has turned in their homework, when their caught being great, AND when they receive a compliment from a teacher (that's my secret to being fabulous in the hallway) :)

If the pan is filled up by the end of the day on Friday, my students earn Fun Friday with is an extra 10 minutes of recess before they go home. 

I love focusing on the positive behavior within my classroom and have found that it works for me.  What sort of things do you use in your classroom?

Where Do You Think You're Going??

            I've finally finished the magnet board I created my glitter magnets for and wanted to share! Man, I'm on a roll! ;) I'm linking up with Ladybug's Teacher Files and Fun in Room 4B's Optimum Organization Linky party!!!

 

As you know the classroom is very happening place with kids always coming and going to meet with different teachers all over the building. This poor girl couldn't keep her head straight! To help manage my kids schedule I used a card system this past year with library pockets. When students left the room, they put the index card with their name on it into the library pocket by the door. This then indicated to me who was out of the room. BUT, there were some issues...aren't there always?!? The paper pockets ripped and needed to be replaced often, the kids would lose the cards in their desks for forget to pick them out of the pockets. The system became too much stress for me...which is sooooo not ideal. 
              So, I've seen many of these types of magnet boards all over Pinterest created by teachers to help manage the issues I was having. Last week I created glitter magnets, which you can find in this post here. Students will be able to move their # magnet to their current location: restroom, office, ELL, etc. I also drew lines to mark where each magnet should be returned to, just to make sure they stay in numerical order and are nice and even. Confession: I can be a bit of a micromanager...#teacherproblems!!! I dolled it up with some leftover ribbon and glitter paper that is to die for!
              I'm SUPER excited to use my new magnet board this year! Do you use a system similar to this in your classroom? How has it worked for you? I'd love to get some feedback. :)