Classroom Helpers in Middle School

Elementary school teachers have a great system of rotating classroom jobs. A student might be the line leader, the paper passer, or, the most coveted job of all, the messenger. Kids love it – it gives them a sense of ownership of the classroom and builds community. Teachers love it – if there’s someone in charge of pushing in all the chairs today, that’s one less thing the teacher needs to do himself or herself. But for some reason, classroom helpers aren’t a thing in middle school.  I tried incorporating rotating jobs in my middle school classroom last year and here’s how it went.

What jobs can middle school classroom helpers do?

Middle schoolers that change classrooms won’t have elementary jobs like line leader, plant waterer, or the person in charge of feeding the classroom pet. But there are jobs that you can have students take responsibility for.

Some jobs that middle schoolers can do:

• Supplies Coordinator – This person is in charge of ensuring that every table has colored pencils, scissors and glue sticks every day.
• Notebook Ninja – I use composition notebooks for my interactive notebooks in my classroom and, most of the time, students leave their notebooks in a bin with their class period. The ninjas are in charge of distributing and collecting notebooks as needed.
• Lab Assistant – This person distributes lab supplies and collects them after the experiments.
• Paper Passer – This person is responsible for handing out papers as needed. I use a pick up station for students to pick up papers, so this wasn’t a useful job in my classroom. If you’re going to use a paper passer, be careful not to let students distribute graded items to protect student privacy!
• Chair Czar – pushes chairs in at the end of the period.
• Floor Monitor – picks up scraps on the floor at the end of the period.
• DJ – During independent work, the DJ is in charge of selecting the (school appropriate) tunes for us all to enjoy.

Who got which job?

I posted “Help Wanted” signs with job descriptions during week 1 last year. Then, I distributed a Google form asking students if they would or would not be interested in each of the jobs.

If you’d like a copy of the Google form I used last year, click here! [Note: The link will prompt you to make a copy of the Google Sheets collection of responses. To view, edit, or share the Google form, click Tools > Manage Form > Edit form.]

Finally, I assigned one interested person to each job. This was tricky. Some classes had 20 volunteers to be the DJ and zero volunteers to be the floor monitor (the least favorite job last year).

Because I only had 7 jobs, I had students switch jobs each marking period. I wound up created a giant (headache of a) spreadsheet and assigning every student 2 jobs throughout the year. If there were no volunteers for a particular job in one class, then that class didn’t have a person doing that job and everyone had to do it (Floor Monitor and Chair Czar became communal jobs).

I hung a poster in the front of the room with each of the jobs listed and the name of the person in charge for each class period. This helped subs follow along with the system.

What did students think?

In short, kids loved it. The favorite job was the Notebook Ninja – by the end of the year, everyone was clamoring to be the Ninja. The least favorite jobs were the Floor Monitor and Chair Czars – no one wanted to do that any more. But, overall, kids loved it. They felt more connected to their classroom and took some ownership of the space we shared.

What will I do differently next year?

I’m going to eliminate Floor Monitor and Chair Czar and make those communal jobs from the start. It wasn’t worth it to try to coerce a reluctant student to pick up after his or her peers.

I’m also eliminating Paper Passer and depending more heavily on the pick up station. I like that this will help build student responsibility in a low risk situation.

The biggest change I’m going to add is a job application that’s more detailed. Instead of letting me know “yes” or “no” to a particular job, I’m going to ask students what skills they’re bringing to the position if they’re hired. I’m also considering some sort of class economy that would give them a reward (Jolly Rancher or sit with a friend or homework pass) for doing the job correctly for the entire marking period.