Art Room Jobs

I am always game to try new things, or to try old things that I haven't tried before. This year I am giving each of my students their own jobs. In the past I have not so randomly chosen students to perform tasks in the art room. The kiddos noticed sooner than I did that I often chose the same students. I don't think it's because I really wanted to choose the same students, but as I have been telling the kids this year "You draw attention to yourself everywhere you go. You get to choose if you draw positive attention or negative attention." I really leaned towards those students who were drawing the most attention. I gave jobs to the students who were always making great choices because they are reliable helpers. I gave jobs to the students who were always testing the boundaries of my expectations so that they could have a more positive place to focus their energies. Often, I would over look the students that fell somewhere in the middle; the students without that strong of an attention beacon. I hope that by assigning each student a job, I can create a more harmonious vibe in the art room, give even responsibilities to my students, and nix the guilt that I felt from not giving attention to those that fell under my radar.

The four jobs were outlined in my beginning of the year Prezi, found here. I also created a wheel type chart with each of the jobs listed. My monsters hold a flag that corresponds to numbers on each of my painted tables.

My students know that I love to make monsters! So, why not have job monsters?

 I created the little monsters on tag board and gave them a little flag with the table number. They have a clothespin on their back so I can rearrange them around the circle each week to evenly distribute the jobs.

We've only had week one of school and I've just introduced the jobs, but I can see on their faces how empowered the students feel. They are stoked to help pass out materials, they show extra pride when taking care of the supplies and even the volume control monitors and floor detectives mean serious business. Win win all around!