Managing a room full of early elementary students can sometimes feel like juggling a dozen glass balls all at once. From keeping students engaged to ensuring smooth transitions between activities and managing troublesome behaviors, the task can feel overwhelming at times for sure! But, FEAR NOT… incorporating classroom jobs and visual schedules into your daily routine can revolutionize your classroom management skills!
Better Classroom Management Through Classroom Jobs and Visual Schedules
Read on to learn all you need to know about classroom jobs and visual schedules including how they’re actually helpful for better classroom management and what you need to get started with both!
Classroom Jobs
Assigning jobs to students not only helps keeps them engaged but fosters a sense of student responsibility and instills important life skills from an early age.
What Classroom Jobs Are
Classroom jobs are anything that you can use a helper for throughout the day– think both small and large!
Examples:
- Line leader
- Sanitizer helper
- Towel helper
- Caboose
- Lights helper
- Tech helper
Find these classroom jobs plus 50+ more in the done-for-you colorful classroom jobs resource! You can also grab this set with black font.
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How Classroom Jobs Help
Classroom jobs have so many benefits! They promote accountability, encourage students to stay engaged, build class community, develop important life skills, AND reduce your workload.
Promote Accountability
Assigning different jobs to each student in your classroom promotes a sense of responsibility. When everyone knows they have a very special role to fill, they are more likely to take ownership of it and contribute positively to the overall classroom environment!
Encourage Engagement
Not only do students feel a sense of accountability when they have classroom jobs, but they also stay more engaged throughout the day!
When students know what to focus on when they aren’t actively doing classwork, they are less likely to become uninterested or disruptive. Their engagement leads to more focus and productivity– a win for everyone!
Build a Sense of Community
Classroom jobs also encourage teamwork and cooperation among students. As they work together, they see the value in everyone completing their tasks. Students begin to encourage others or offer support when they see them forgetting or struggling with a job because they understand the importance each job brings to the classroom
When students support each other, it is natural that fewer behavior problems will arise. This all leads to a beautiful sense of community!
Develop Important Life Skills
Classroom jobs teach students important life skills like time management, organization, responsibility, and teamwork.
As students work to complete various classroom tasks, they will be practicing these very important skills that will help your classroom run smoothly and foster lifelong success!
Reduce Teacher Workload
Finally, classroom jobs help YOU!
Delegating tasks to students can help lighten your workload. Instead of you having to manage every aspect of your classroom (from lesson planning to handing out tissues to turning the lights off each time you leave the room to getting students where they need to be on time), you can share some of those responsibilities with students.
This delegation allows you to focus more brainpower on classroom instruction and individualized support for your students!
What You Need
You can seamlessly incorporate classroom jobs into your daily routine using 2 easy steps!
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1. Set Up
Use a big pocket chart to easily display job cards. Assign each student a job using their name cards or pictures.
2. Rotate Jobs
Rotate student names or pictures periodically to ensure everyone gets a chance to experience different roles. You can change roles daily or weekly depending on the dynamics of your classroom.
*Trust your teacher gut— you know what will work best for your students!
Visual Schedules
Visual schedules are another game-changer in helping you manage your classroom full of young students! These visuals provide your students with a clear outline of the day’s activities.
How Visual Schedules Help
Visual schedules provide clarity, promote independence, support different learning styles, and make transitions so much easier!
Provide Clarity
Visual schedules help students easily know what to expect each day. Using real pictures also helps support emergent readers, developing writers, and English learners.
This clarity helps reduce confusion and anxiety too!
Promote Independence
Visual schedules also empower students to take control of their own learning.
Instead of asking and wondering “what’s next?” or “when is ___?”, students learn that they can refer to the visual schedule independently to figure out the answer to their schedule questions.
Support Different Learning Styles
Visual schedules also cater to students who are naturally visual learners and may struggle with traditional verbal instructions.
*Let’s be honest though, most little ones can benefit from these visuals for support!
Facilitate Smoother Transitions
Last but not least, visual schedules are amazing for making smoother transitions happen. When students can see these schedule pictures, they can more easily understand exactly what comes next when one activity ends.
This means fewer disruptions and redirection moments!
What You Need
Preparing a visual schedule doesn’t need to be difficult.
First, you need your visuals! Grab these 88 editable schedule cards in color or with black font.
Next, display them! Use either a narrow pocket chart or magnet dots to display your schedule cards on your board.
Review the schedule together with your students each morning and remind them to check back throughout the day when they ask “what’s next?”.
Keep track of completed activities throughout the day to help keep your students engaged and teach them to become familiar with the visual schedule.
Ideas for Tracking Completed Activities:
- slide a character down the schedule
- flip over completed cards
Mini-Bundle Resource
Especially when thinking about classroom management, there’s no need to try to reinvent the wheel!
Use this mini-bundle classroom jobs and visual schedule resource that includes almost 150 editable cards with REAL LIFE PICTURES to make classroom management a breeze.
It’s never too late to implement classroom jobs and visual schedules in your classroom. Give yourself permission to start these classroom management tricks this week– you’ll start to see a world of difference sooner than you think!
Looking for more classroom management ideas? Check out this post about The STAR TABLE!
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