How I solved the problem of class jobs with this time-saving FREEBIE:
As a teacher, I love organising all the things! But I believe it is very important that I am time efficient and that I set up systems in my classroom that run without too much additional time and organisation throughout the year.
Because of this, I have ALWAYS struggled with class jobs. The concept of students taking responsibility and contributing to the daily running of the classroom is essential, but I always found class jobs resulted in ME needing to remember everyone’s jobs. As well I felt I was continually reminding them for it to run smoothly (and to be honest, I didn’t want to put my teacher brain power into that task every day!) Furthermore, I had to change jobs regularly because students were often disappointed with the job they’d been appointed. Therefore, some students didn’t take the task seriously, and all of this took up precious learning time.
I tried many, many variations of organising class jobs and it wasn’t until I taught my first kindergarten class that I came across an absolute winner!
Introducing ‘PA of the Day‘ (PA stands for Personal Assistant).
I made some special badges (that is all the pre-organisation I needed for this system). Put the badges on a lanyard, so they have that ‘VIP appeal’ and hung them in a special spot near the front of the classroom.
From there, it was as simple as choosing one student at the end of each day that had been working well to be titled ‘PA of the Day’ for the following school day. That student would become my teacher personal assistant for the entire next day at school. They did any special jobs, trips to the office, collected lunches, were the line leader and anything extra I needed throughout the day. With this extremely sought-after role, they got to choose a partner to help them with any of those extra responsibilities. The students wore the badges with honour and teachers and other students would stop them in the playground and congratulate them on their role because everyone could see who earned the position of ‘PA for the day‘.
Every other traditional ‘class’ job became the responsibility of the whole class. Everyone made sure the floor was clean, the lights were off, bags were tidy etc. (which is how it should be!)
I loved this concept because all I needed to do from an organisational perspective was choose a student at the end of each day. It also doubled as a rewards system. My students were always so enthusiastic, took the role very seriously and strived to work hard to become tomorrow’s PA.
It was a wonderful system for the students too, especially young students who are all eager to help and have an important role in the classroom. Everyone got an opportunity to have a turn at being PA, and it was achievable for every student to earn their turn because I was only taking one day at a time into account when choosing my PA.
Implementing ‘PA of the Day‘ made such a huge difference for me in my classroom. My colleagues asked about the lanyards and also started using and loving the system too. I decided I needed to share it beyond just my colleagues and teacher friends, so I uploaded a badge and short explanation on Teacher pay Teachers so other teachers around the world could benefit from this super simple classroom job system.
If this is an idea that sounds like something that could transform your classroom, like it did mine, grab your free PA of the Day badges here.
We also have a FREE PA of the Day badge template in the Modern Rainbow Theme here.
“Best thing I did as a Kindy Teacher” Megan Selwood
“These were the best thing in my classroom last year. Seriously saved me!” For All the Love of Teaching
“I swear by these!!! We use this in my class and the PA’s are such great helpers!! Definitely stops all the arguing about line leaders and helpers! My kiddos love the fact they wear it all day too” For All the Love of Teaching
“My daughter loved being PA of the Day” Lori Amodei
“Such an easy way to do jobs” Beth R
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