Classroom Ideas
As fall start dates inch closer and district reopening plans are still in progress, the only certainty with returning to school is that it will place unprecedented demands on teachers. But if there is any good news in the reopening of schools, it is this: Teachers do not have to carry all of these burdens alone. Teachers have long recognized the benefits of delegating classroom jobs. Now more than ever, teachers need the added support and students need to feel valued in the classroom. With the unique challenges of teaching during COVID-19, here are some new pandemic classroom jobs teachers can add to the rotation.
1. Videographer
With so many options for reopening schools, it is likely that not all students will be in the classroom at the same time. To save time and effort, teachers may choose to record live lessons and upload them for asynchronous virtual instruction. The videographer is in charge of starting and stopping the recording and ensuring that the teacher and all content remain in the frame of the video. The videographer should sit at the front of the room to protect the other students’ privacy.
2. Scribe
Teachers who choose not to utilize video will still want a time-effective way to share class content with their virtual audiences. The scribe is a tech-savvy student who can take detailed digital notes of the day’s lesson and either email them to the teacher or upload them directly to the class’ learning management system.
3. Good Vibes Guru
Many students are going to be affected by the pandemic in some way. The good vibes guru keeps track of any students who have requested support in dealing with illness or loss in their families and leads the class in wishing those students well. This pandemic classroom job will help students feel connected, something we all need more than ever.
4. Media Manager
In schools implementing virtual and hybrid solutions, the learning management system will become a sacred space for students and teachers. To keep a sense of community going in the virtual realm, the media manager will find humorous and appropriate memes, jokes, and videos to share with the class. In higher grades, the media manager may also take direction from social media influences and use daily hashtags in discussion boards to keep the class connected and engaged.
5. Sanitation Supervisor
This student monitors the class supply of sanitizing products to ensure that they do not run out. Depending on the school’s policies, this student either informs the teacher when supplies are getting low or is responsible for procuring new cleansing products from the office.
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6. Attention Attendant
Due to the extended break from learning and the trauma students have suffered since they were last in school, attention spans are going to run shorter than teachers may expect. The attention attendant sets a timer for an amount of time to focus predetermined by the teacher and informs him or her when it is time for the class to take a quick break.
7. Brain Break Decider
A stretch break is nice, but organized brain breaks can help create a sense of levity and community in a pandemic-era classroom. Once the attention attendant has called time, the brain break decider chooses the activity, either written on wooden sticks or arranged around a spinner, from a selection of brain breaks that are appropriate or adaptable for social distancing.
8. Understudy
Teachers are likely to tire more easily from projecting their voices through masks. The understudy is an exceptional student who is at the ready to relieve the teacher when she or he needs a quick breather. Working from a script prepared by the teacher, the understudy leads his or her classmates through a short, easily-managed segment of the lesson. This job not only capitalizes on student strengths and encourages student ownership of learning but may also prove invaluable in the event of teacher absence.
9. Distance Detector
Current guidelines recommend maintaining 3 to 6 feet of distancing between students’ desks. Any teacher who has spent time in a classroom, however, knows that student furniture has a way of migrating to and clustering on one side of the room. The distance detector ensures that desks remain within their delineated space and prompts the class to spread out when seating becomes too close.
10. Ambassador
Quarantines and financial hardships may devastate attendance records. The ambassador is a student who, in addition to the teacher, reaches out electronically to students on prolonged absences to check in and inquire if those students have questions or need extra support with their classwork. This student may also report the efforts of the good vibes guru.
11. Stand-ins
Another effect of widespread absences is that any number of classroom jobs could be unfilled daily. The stand-ins are students who are trained in particular classroom jobs and can serve in their classmates’ places when needed.
Teachers and students will be one another’s greatest allies in the uncertain educational climate that awaits them in the fall. Utilizing these pandemic classroom jobs can ease the transition back into the classroom after the most tumultuous event in most students’ lives. It can also free the teacher up to be the emotional rocks that students will need them to be more than ever before.
