Are you looking for a classroom management tool that will help establish and maintain a safe and engaging classroom community? It's a fact students can't learn if we don't first provide a nurturing community in which they feel safe and motivated. Making classroom jobs a part of our routines has helped me provide my first grade students with the environment they need.
When I taught first grade bilingual, my district was very big on Conscious Discipline. The idea of a school family was one of the pillars we consistently worked on. In the classroom, as part of my Beginning of the Year routines, I emphasized that notion with a set of commitments that took the place of regular classroom rules. We came about these commitments TOGETHER as a consensus (more on this topic later). The central idea and the purpose of this was to discuss the role each individual plays in the community (or our class community). We talked about what each individual needed to work on to ensure that our class community felt safe and ready to learn. Feeding off of this discussion, I would slowly introduce the importance our classroom jobs would have in our community and how these jobs would help keep our community running.
My first year of teaching I knew I wanted to create as many jobs as possible to make sure each student had a job. My focus was to ensure no one was left out. These jobs slowly refined and evolved throughout the years. I found that giving these classroom jobs an actual job title (jobs found in a real community) was enticing for students and made them feel grown-up. Later, I learned to milk the idea of classroom jobs a bit more and tie in financial literacy by using ClassDojo and giving them points at the end of the week. They later could cash-in those points and buy incentives from our class store (more on this topic later).
Classroom jobs turned in to a must-have in my classroom! Below you will see a list of ideas in SPANISH for jobs and the duties I usually assigned.
I usually printed these posters in color, laminated them and posted them to my white board. I later wrote student names with dry-erase markers so I could switch them when needed. One year, I made number cards with a magnet on the back for each student and switched those around as needed (this was much more efficient in the long run). This resource is available by clicking the image above. I usually gave each student a tag with their job title. This was like their Job ID. They learned to treasure these and take care of them. The best way to use them came to be with lanyards.
Classroom jobs - in spanish
ASISTENTE DE RECURSOS HUMANOS - ASISTENCIA when attendance bell sounds, student checks transportation pins (at arrival students move their transportation pin. If someone's pin was not moved that could mean they were absent) and makes sure Teacher submits attendance
ASISTENTE DE RECURSOS HUMANOS - AMISTADES during recess, student is in charge of making sure there is no one left out. If the student sees a classmate that is lonely, they can invite them to play. Likewise, if a student feels lonely, they can go to this student for help
OPERARIO DE LIMPIEZA Y MANTENIMIENTO - RECICLAJE Y BASURA this student can walk to each table to pick up trash (if you want to diminish number of students out of their chairs). This student also picks up trash/paper at the end of the day before dismissal
OPERARIO DE LIMPIEZA Y MANTENIMIENTO - SILLAS at dismissal, this student or students will help pick up or stack student chairs. At arrival, they will promptly unstack chairs if needed.
OPERARIO DE LIMPIEZA Y MANTENIMIENTO - LÁPICES at arrival, this student will sharpen pencils and clean pencil area.
OPERARIO DE LIMPIEZA Y MANTENIMIENTO - PISOS at dismissal, this student may sweep or help "reciclaje y basura"
BIBLIOTECARIO/A this student will help the teacher maintain an organized and tidy classroom library
ASISTENTE DE AGENDA - CALENDARIO at arrival, this student will place the date or the number card that is needed on the class calendar. They will also remind the teacher of birthdays or special events
OPERARIO DE LIMPIEZA Y MANTENIMIENTO - CAFETERÍA/MESAS after lunch, this student or students will help custodian wipe down tables
ELECTRICISTA this student will turn-on and turn-off classroom lights when asked by the teacher. They can also turn lamps on and off
PORTERO this student is usually the second in line after the line leader and opens doors as the class transitions through hallways
CAPITÁN DE FILA this student has to set an example for the rest of the line and is in charge of leading the line as directed by the teacher. There can be a boy and girl "capitán" if the class uses two lines
MENSAJERO/A this student will take any notes the teacher requires
ZOÓLOGO/A at arrival, this student will feed and give water to any classroom pets
DISTRIBUIDOR/A - PAPELES Y ÚTILES this student or students will help handout worksheets, papers, or supplies (with practice, student can learn to hand the number of papers needed at each table to the table captain instead of one-by-one in order to be more efficient)
CAPITÁN DE MESA/GRUPO this student will receive worksheets or supplies from "distrubuidor" and hand out to his/her group members. This student will also help keep table/group supplies or folders organized
ASISTENTE PERSONAL this student will be able to help the teacher with any favor such as getting a paper from the printer
ASISTENTE DE SALUBRIDAD - ENFERMERÍA this student can walk a classmate to the nurse's office. This student may also give a classmate a bandaid when directed by the teacher
ASISTENTE DE SALUBRIDAD - GEL DESINFECTANTE before lining up for lunch, this student can stand at the door and pump germ-x for each student as they head out of the classroom
TÉCNICO EN COMPUTACIÓN at arrival, this student will turn-on all of the student computers. If needed, the student may help classmates that have trouble logging-on. At dismissal, the student will turn-off all student computers and tidy-up the computer center
METEORÓLOGO/A this student will check the day's weather and report to teacher for calendar time
JARDINERO/A at arrival, this student will help water classroom plants
GUARDIA DE SEGURIDAD - BAÑOS during restroom time, these students (usually 1 boy and 1 girl) will help monitor the restrooms without peeping in to stalls. This student can make sure toilets are flushed and no paper is left on the floor as well as make sure that classmates are not playing. They can report back to teacher so that the teacher may address the problem if needed
GUARDIA DE SEGURIDAD - SALÓN if the teacher needs to step-out of the classroom, this student will help monitor and report back to the teacher when they are back.This student will not interrupt their own work but just keep an eye on things. No other classmate should tattle or help this student. The only person to report back to the teacher will be this student
SUPLENTE this student will take over any job that is unfilled because of an absence
You can pick and choose what jobs would be most important in your classroom and which jobs need two or more students to fill. Year after year it all looks a bit different; one year you may have 25+ students and another year you may have 16. The biggest take-away from this is that each job is important and helps our classroom community keep running.
I hope you find these ideas helpful and useful. If you've purchased the resource above and have any suggestions or would like to see a certain job title included, LET ME KNOW by emailing me at BilinguallyEverAfter@gmail.com or leaving a comment below!
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