Class Jobs

I have been taking Angela Watson's 40 hour teacher workweek course and I love it!  This month we are encouraged to consider jobs that students can do to take some pressure off of us - this is a weird idea for high school (for me and perhaps some of you), but I'd sure like to try it!

I have some ideas floating in the back of my head, but I'm not sure I have things quite right yet.  I am looking for suggestions in order to really finalize in preparation for the year.  Not that I won't change it once we get started, but just that I have a solid starting place.

Background:  I will be doing this for 9th grade algebra.  My enrollment for each period tends to vary between 12 and 20 students.  I have 6 table groups set up and I use certain ones depending on home many students there are in the course.  I plan to rearrange student seats approx every 6 weeks, and would like to reassign jobs at the same time as that.

Anyway here are the jobs I'm thinking of:

IT Support (1-2 per class):  These students would be the go-to people when other students are having trouble with Delta Math, google classroom, or desmos.  If they can't solve it, they will come to me, but hopefully a lot of problems could be resolved this way.  They could also help subs run my technology when I am absent!

Clean up Captains (2 per class):  These students' job would be to look around the classroom during those last 2 minutes and ensure everything is in its place.  That the supply caddies are organizes (with no trash), trash is picked up off the floor, and notebooks/calculators are put away.  When necessary, these students would be last out in order to take care of any areas that are not cleaned up thoroughly.

Teacher's Helper (1 per class):  This student would be available to run errands for me, pass out papers, help with attendance, and change the date (only the person at the end of the day would do this)

Table Captains (1 per table):  These students would help turn in papers, collect work and follow up with absent students, help with putting away supplies, and have a table specific job based on the location of the table group.  I'm not sure if this will make sense, but I'm going to share those specific jobs.  Table 1 is lights/door, tables 2 and 3 are board cleaners, table 4 would be in charge of the phone, tables 5 and 6 would be in charge of the blinds.

Now, here's my concern.  This is jobs for more than half the students, but not all of them.  So is that appropriate for high school?  Is it likely I will have enough interest?  Should I try to pare it down?  Ideas for changes/modifications?

Thanks for any feedback here or on twitter (@kathrynfreed)!

-Kathryn

End of the Year

Things will be changing at my school next year.  Don't worry, I'm still happily planning on being in my same position, but I will be losing several coworkers as well as my principal.  I am very sad to lose so many wonderful, compassionate people.  I have enjoyed working with them and some of them are my dearest friends.  But apparently this stage has come to an end, and there are things to look forward to in a new year, so here are some of them!

1.  Our bell schedule...I think every year our bell schedule changes a bit.  Hopefully this one is a keeper :)

2.  My organization plans...I've been filing lots of Algebra papers into a file cabinet for years.  It's overflowing now, so I've decided to try unit binders with MINIMAL paper copies and keeping everything I can in google drive.  I've got drive set up ready to go, so I will work next year to transition.

3.  My attitude...I think doing the 40 Hour Teacher Workweek with Angela Watson has really allowed me to put things into perspective and focus on school at school and home at home.  I want to keep strengthening that because it's the peace I get from stepping away that allows me to deal with challenging behaviors in a more peaceful way.

4.  Our new principal admitted to not checking email at home.  What a great example of self care!

Something Positive:  I got a very wonderful compliment from a coworker today, and I'm feeling that that is a powerful way to end the year.  It is nice to know that someone thinks I've got potential and am doing a good job.  I will tuck that away for the future when I need it - too bad it wasn't written down!

Something Funny:  As I was cleaning out my room I came across a box that I didn't want to throw out last time I cleaned out the closet.  Upon opening it I found these certificates for a math competition

I was thinking about how funny it is that this is OLD (you can see this says 2006, others were from 2002) and then I realized that *I* was in high school then...but slowly my brain put together the more ironic fact that my husband was in high school then and he attended the school we both now teach at!  As far as he can remember he participated in this math competition in 2006, meaning that this is a result of his efforts (along with others' as well).  This was by far by #myfavoriteclassroomtrash

-Kathryn