Monday Made It! Team Job Chart!

I can’t believe it’s already Monday and time to link up again with 4th Grade Frolics “Monday Made it”!  Click HERE to check out the party!  This week I kept it pretty simple, but I wanted to share with you how I do my job chart.  I have seen several million different versions of job charts, but I have totally changed my approach with jobs over the last few years.  I firmly believe that students need to have classroom jobs to help take care of their community space.  What I dislike is the time needed to organize weekly job changes, to make sure that jobs are being finished, and so on.

Several years ago, I moved to “team” jobs and I absolutely love it!  I form my class into 5 teams.  I rotate team jobs about every two weeks and the team is responsible for getting the job done each day.  Because students often have things come up at the end of the day (leaving early, needing last minute help, being pulled by a specialist teacher, etc), having TEAM jobs still ensures that jobs get finished.  It helps students work together and learn to communicate, work out their own schedule, and problem solve when team members aren’t pulling their weight!

Here is my job board from last year:

Beautiful?  No.  But it DID get the job done.  Here’s how I used it.  I had FOUR jobs (that’s it–only 4).  The fifth “job” was “vacation”.  Those students were in charge of tidying up their own desks but otherwise were “off” for that 2 week period.  During their “vacation”, these students also get to use the reading pillows and sit in the green chairs.  

To kick of the year, I form the students into their 5 groups (totally randomly) and they work to come up with a team name.  This is one of our first experiences with the concept of “consensus”, and it is NOT easy for all of them.  We talk about how important it is to be willing to compromise and that it isn’t possible for a team of 5 to each get their top choice.  Students need to learn the difference between “I really don’t like it”, “I want MY pick” and “I can live with that.”

We always end up with some pretty classic names.  

Dangerous Dirt Dogs
The Candy Colored Iguanas
Cheese
Clean Up Crushers

Trust me.  I had no part in any of the naming!  It is a fun way for the job team to bond, and I then make a laminated tag with the team name and all the student names underneath.  I then hung the job names on a cupboard door with hooks underneath so I could easily move the groups from hook to hook to switch jobs.  We work together as a class to clearly define what the different jobs involve and what they will look like when done well.

This year I decided to “tidy up” the job names to make them look a little better.  I kept with my turquoise and lime colored theme and just printed off some new labels.

I’ll hang these up on the cupboard doors to replace the old ugly ones and will make my new “job team” lists as soon as my new students come up with their team names!  I know it wouldn’t work for everyone–but it works for us!
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Meg