Teachers are overloaded with so many tasks and to-dos through the day, but we don’t have to be as overworked as we think! There’s a few simple steps to reducing teacher stress and anxiety through delegation through classroom jobs. Let’s dive in and look at classroom jobs that will take things off of your plate and let you leave the day more fulfilled.

Solving Your Pain Points

One of the biggest ideas in the engineering world is that you are always looking for constant improvement. ALWAYS. So, why don’t we try doing that in the classroom?

The first piece is to identify your pain point. What’s something that you struggle with remembering or finding the time for within your classroom? Do you always forget to put makeup work packets together or dread cleaning up the room at the end of the day? Pick one pain point to work with at a time and let’s find a solution!

What Can Students Do?

Students are more willing to help us with some of these small tasks than we might realize, and the power is in deciding what or how they can help relieve that pain point for you.

Looking at the examples from above: can you assign a student each hour (typically a fast finisher) to create absent student packets? How about assigning a team of students to wipe down desks or put up chairs at the end of the day?

These tasks take less than 5 minutes for our students, but can relieve us of that nagging stress teachers feel.

Classroom Jobs for Secondary Students

Below, I want to walk you through a few classroom jobs that you can assign (or rotate) for your middle and high school students to help take away some of those pain points for you. If your assigned student isn’t following through, choose another. For really stubborn classes, you may want to supply small rewards or help count it as service hours (5 minutes a day 5 days a week can really add up!)

1. Materials Manager

A materials manager can help with any materials/papers that need to be passed out or handed in. Do you have a lab or station activity coming up? They can help you prepare and inventory to make sure all items are returned. This classroom job pairs perfectly with markers for when you color your notes!

2. Technology Manager

Don’t fret! You will ALWAYS have that one student who is amazing with tech and you can not only put them in charge of making sure all technology is plugged in at the end of the day, but ask them to be your tech guru and troubleshoot any issues when the class is working.

These students are typically more than happy to share their knowledge and can be really reliable when it comes to helping subs who may have trouble with your smartboard.

3. Secretary

This classroom job is extremely flexible, and that can make your life so much easier! Maybe you want them to write up the agenda for the day on the board (a job no student can resist) or they run papers to the office. Secretaries can even organize your turned in assignments in alphabetical order by student name to help cut down on your grading time!

4. Sub Specialist

I usually have a few students who are listed as “helpful and reliable” in my seating charts for subs, but you can also have a classroom job where you prepare a student for a known sub day and they are the go-to helper. This student can not only assist the sub in any confusion they may have, but they can also help clear up what actually happened on that cryptic message the sub left YOU.

5. Sanitation Counselor

More than ever, this is a necessary staple classroom job. You may want to have several students a period helping to wipe down tables and chairs, take out your recycling, emptying the pencil sharpener, and picking up old wrappers left on your floor. When it’s a group effort for a great cause, you’ll have no problem getting students to help out.

These are just 5 classroom jobs that I feel can help cover several teacher pain points and relieve your everyday stress and task load. But there’s really no limit to what your students can help you with! Be creative (or let them be creative and make a bulletin board for you) and see how well these simple ideas can really work.

Let me know what type of jobs you have or what jobs you may want to try in your classroom!

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