Children can learn to understand the importance of individual roles that they have within the classroom that leads to understanding the bigger picture of their roles in a society.
One important fact that a teacher should establish is that every pupil is valued and important as a member of the class.
Creating roles for every child within a class committee and make them leaders of their respective roles.
Give praise where praise is due for their effective contribution for the roles that they play.
These are just some of the roles that you can consider:-
Monitor and monitress – Commonly given to those with leadership qualities to maintain classroom discipline.
Teacher assistance – Pupils who can carry your things like books and teaching materials.
Audio and video monitors - Pupils who can set up your laptop, projector and visualiser before you start your lesson.
Cleanliness monitor – A pupil to plan the classroom duty roster to clean the classroom daily and monitor the classroom cleanliness.
Ventilation monitors - If your classroom is not air-conditioned and there are windows, these pupils will be there to ensure that the windows are opened before the first period and closed at the end of the last period. They can also be in charge of lights and fans in the classroom.
Dispute committee- When there are arguments or quarrels among the pupils, get them to write down what are the issues and submit to the dispute committee to evaluate. This committee should settle the dispute through discussions and get both affected parties to understand and apologise when there is a need to do so. With this committee, the class form teacher will not have to handle every discipline case directly but step in only when there is a need.
Environmental champion – Assist in recycling of waste paper, mineral bottles etc to cultivate the value of environmental issue.
Class library – To take care of class storybooks
Group leader- To collect and issue things within a group if each class is organised into different groups. Lead classroom discussions and projects within the group.
Group tutors – High progress pupils who are better with certain subjects can help to guide weaker pupils. Giving the term ‘Group tutors’ rather than buddy makes them feel like little teachers within the group. Beside the weaker pupils improving, you can see significant improvement of group tutors in their studies as they would have explained and practiced the same concept more since they need to guide others.
There are still many roles that you can create. The main point is the make pupils feel important within a classroom and their roles that can make a difference.
Disclaimer: This is my personal reflection and I am not in any position to instruct anyone what they should do. I am not responsible for any action taken as a result of this post. My post can only be a reference for your further research and growth. By reading this post, you acknowledge and accept that. All images and pictures were taken from google images that are free from copyright under labelled for reuse.