Back To School ~ Helpers In My Classroom

Helpers!

{2017 Summer Fun Rerun}

I  team teach, so I teach two different groups each day. The first group is the Blue Group and the second group is the Red Group. My classroom helpers are broken into two groups, one for the blue group and one for the red group. Part of my CHAMPS board is for helpers. Nothing fancy, nothing Pinterest worthy, just HELPERS printed on green paper with a couple of Gators and then the class lists for the blue group on blue paper and the red group on red paper. {I blocked out their names for this picture.} 

This makes it easy to change when we get new students or someone moves. I just revise and reprint the lists. Then I use two blue and two red thumb tacks to mark the daily helper. My helpers go in order. Two kids a day, each day. If you are absent, you are skipped. I also like to end the day saying, "Suzie & Johnnie, you HAVE to come tomorrow, you are my helpers." Who knows, if they are laying in bed thinking...time to fake sick....maybe, just maybe, being my helper that day will encourage them to come. Every little thing helps when your school has a high absenteeism rate. 

My two helpers do everything, they pass out papers, collect papers, take a kid to the clinic, run an errand, answer the phone, get copies off of the printer, pass out the reward tickets, everything! It takes two seconds each morning to see who is next, so you lose no instructional time! When I taught first I called them the king and the queen, but my third graders last year asked if I would just call them helpers. Since I am hanging with the bigger kids now, I guess king and queen just wasn't COOL! :)

How about you? Anything you would like to share with my followers about your helpers? Leave a comment and I'll add it to the post!