A few years ago, I had a revelation.
I was spending WAY TOO MUCH time dealing with classroom management and responsibilities. Paper passer, line leader, line ender, door opener, door closer, sweeper, messenger – the list went on and on! It was important to me to make sure that each student had an opportunity to do each job and that led me to want to pull my hair out each Friday afternoon when I needed to rotate my job chart. Then there was the constant “Who is the…?” questions that I would have to ask throughout the day to make sure the proper student was called upon to do his/ her job! Oh! And the paperwork that went along with it! YIKES! I had implemented and encouraged a classroom management nightmare.
After thinking about it for a while, I was introduced to the idea of having a class V.I.P. It is a very simple, yet effective, idea. One student is chosen as the V.I.P and it is his/her responsibility to complete all the tasks that I need him/her to do. Do I need help to pass out papers? It’s the V.I.P. who does it for me. Who’s the student who gets to be line leader for the week? Yep, it’s my V.I.P. Who gets to take the attendance folder and any important messages to the office for me? You guessed it! It’s my V.I.P. My students LOVE the V.I.P system as much as I do! They are so excited each and every Monday morning when it is time to name a new helper for the week.
How does the V.I.P. system work in my class?
It’s quite simple.
I take pictures of my students at the beginning of each year and I use those portraits for my V.I.P.’s. I randomly select a V.I.P. during Monday’s homeroom period each week. That picture is proudly displayed on my V.I.P. board so that everyone knows who is my Mini-Me for the week. Here are some of my V.I.P’s that I have had this year.
At the beginning of the year, I had my students fill out an application form to be V.I.P. This is a cute little way to get the students excited about the “job” that they will have at some point during the year. There is also a contract for them to sign once their photo is drawn to be V.I.P. for the week. This adds a nice sense of responsibility to the title of V.I.P.
During their time as V.I.P., each student is asked to complete a reflection activity about his/ her time as my helper. I keep the completed reflection sheets in a class book that the children can look at whenever they have free time. Here are some examples of what the reflection sheets look like.
Here are some photos of the children working on their reflection booklets.
There is also a wonderful little evaluation form that I give my students so that they can get feedback from me after their week of being my V.I.P. is over.
I also give my V.I.P.’s a certificate at the end of each week to thank them for all their hard work for the week.
Look at all the smiles and the pride you can see on their faces!
Starting up a class V.I.P. system is easy as 1-2-3! If you would like to get use the documents that I have implemented in my classroom, just click on this link to get your own copy!
Do you have a GREAT classroom management idea that you want to share? Link up your blog post or product below and share your insight!
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Have a great day!
Heather aka HoJo says
This is such a neat idea! Thank you for taking the time to link up with my Teaching Tuesday link up party. I’m glad others will be able to find this.