Roles can range from leading a class through a problem to returning papers to peers, one educator suggests in a K-12 Dive article.
Meredith Howard employs students to do everything from monitoring attendance to troubleshooting technology to returning graded work in her history and social studies classroom at Albert Hill Middle School in Richmond, Virginia.
“Sometimes, teachers are very loath to give up control,” Howard says. She recommends that teachers “identify something that takes up their time, something they’re always forgetting, something they wish they didn’t have to do, so they could do this other thing that’s more important.”
Jobs for older students should be thoughtful in helping them form identity, build a connection to school and a sense of belonging, develop their leadership skills, and gain agency, says Pamela Randall, senior staff advisor for the Collaborating Districts Initiative at CASEL and a former high school principal.
Howard suggests that teachers who want to initiate a jobs program start small and look at other educators’ lists.
“You’ve got to do what works for you,” she says. “Some classes don’t have the right vibe, the right mix of kids. You’ve got to give yourself grace and be flexible about this.”
Students need reminders in the first few weeks of the school year, which Howard handles with a mix of encouragement and admonishment: “I can’t wait until you guys are doing this?” she says. “I verbalize that to them. Why am I still passing out papers? I verbalize that.”
Classroom jobs help students gain a sense of service to their peers and could be an inroad to their future career choices if they are meaningful, developmentally appropriate and tap into their passions, Randall says.
A high school student could lead their math class through a trigonometry problem, for instance, she says. “If they’re in front of the class leading a discussion, that will give them a sense of confidence that I can stand in front of a group of people and make a presentation. … That could lead to a career as a teacher, or in law.”
On the social-emotional side, students gain executive functioning skills, practice in making responsible decisions, and social awareness of what’s important to classmates and adults in the school, Randall says.
“They’re going to have to be self-aware and self-managed enough to follow through on job tasks,” she says. “Building relationships is going to be threaded throughout.”
K-12 Dive
