


In person, this student would highlight mistakes on assessments for the teacher to look at later. Assistant Grader: Helps the teacher with grading.This one works best in an in-person setting, but many teachers probably also have online spaces that could use help with decluttering. KonMari Organizing Specialist: Keeps classroom supplies organized.Tech Guru: Sets up the teacher’s classroom tech and helps other students with tech in-person, or troubleshoots and provides help to other students through screen sharing during virtual learning.Zoologist: Cares for the class pet (or their own pet in remote learning) and lets the rest of the class check in once a week to see how the pet is doing.Visual Display Artist: Creates posters for in-person class or graphics to be used online for remote learning.Motivational Speaker: Records a one-minute Loom video each week reflecting on a motivational idea or quote to share with the class.This can be done through the videoconferencing platform if you are remote. DJ: Plays music for 5 minutes before class.Athletic Trainer: Sets a timer for the middle of a class meeting to lead students in a movement activity, whether students are in the room or in a video meeting.To keep it manageable, Gibson recommends only having students do one podcast per month, and keeping each episode under 3 minutes. Podcaster: Produces a regular brief podcast on a topic of interest to students, using tools like Soundtrap or GarageBand to make it happen.Gibson has compiled a list of over 25 unique student job titles. So they gain experience with the job application process.Ĭlassroom jobs have really evolved past board cleaner and line leader. In Gibson’s class, students aren’t just given the jobs they have to apply for them. It lets students learn job application skills.“I started seeing an opportunity to tap into the students’ interests with these class jobs as opposed to just getting something done for me.” Gibson started to see more value in classroom jobs when he had students create things that could be shared with a wider audience, like podcasts, newsletters, and art. It gives students opportunities to explore interests and develop talents.“Students feel like they are actually contributing in a meaningful way that is helping you as the teacher or helping their fellow classmates with something,” Gibson says. It builds positive classroom community and culture.He has basically mastered the art of managing a whole program of classroom jobs, and he’s made that process work for remote learning, too. Gibson is a middle school STEM teacher from Austin, Texas. Now that I have talked with Thom Gibson about this topic, I wish I could go back to the classroom so I could put some serious effort into establishing a robust system of classroom jobs. As a result, secondary teachers often work themselves to the bone, doing everything themselves as their students, ironically, grow more capable of taking on responsibilities every year. Elementary teachers are fantastic about assigning jobs to students, but as kids get older, teachers use these kinds of systems less and less. The other reason was because it wasn’t really a part of middle school culture. I was too much of a control freak, for one.

When I was a middle school teacher, I didn’t do much with classroom jobs. On top of that, they’ll help students discover and develop passions and talents they can take with them well beyond your class. This is typically something we associate with face-to-face classrooms during normal times, but I was absolutely delighted-and I don’t use the word ‘delighted’ every day-to learn that not only is it totally possible to assign jobs to students in remote classes, the jobs can make those remote classes really, really enjoyable. I’m talking about classroom jobs, the tasks we assign to students to help keep our classrooms running. At first I just thought it was a neat idea, something teachers could implement pretty easily, something that would be a nice change of pace from what we usually talk about here.īut now I’m thinking this might actually be the thing that helps wake up a lot of our remote and hybrid classrooms from the white-knuckle, just-get-through-it mentality many of us have settled into as the ’20-21 school year grinds through its second half. This might be the perfect time for this topic.
