Naming Helpers

   The first time I stepped into Mrs. X's room, I realized that it was a special one. The rapport and the consideration she showed to have with her students, could only bring up great results. It was the first day of the week, not a Monday, but a Tuesday as the students were coming back from their Christmas break. Why is this important? Well, if you are a teacher, you know how excited kids get as they are back to school even if they were away for a week or less. Hugs and exchange of caring acts invaded the corridors and classrooms. Good to see kids love each other so much in this school!
   Back to our subject before I start writing what is supposed to be another entry in this Blog. Mrs. X greeted her students and asked them to share their most important memories for the time they were away. There were so many! The class ran smoothly. Sitting on the floor, they could share their impressions and opinions among this nice group of 20 students. It was time to start working and coming back to real life... No problem at all for this group, as I could observe. This is when Mrs. X shared the practice I would like to highlight in this post.
   She said it happens every Monday and kids love to do it. I could see how true this was! She asked the children to help her with the classroom duties. But the chores were not ordinarily named, they all had special names and that was what students were most excited about. Look at the picture below and check the names she gave to each duty:

Mrs. X board. Can you think about the special names missing in this list?
Give your suggestion in the comments.

   Energy hero? I would love to be one! Mrs. X didn't choose the helpers, she let them choose whatever they wanted to be with the chance of having more than one with the same job. In their job, they can supervise each other, share the duty or even help one another when the job gets too tough. 

   The greatest advantage I can see this practice is that students get more sense of responsibility over their classroom or even school. Children understand they are the ones who need to clean, save energy, ensure well-being of the whole community... Among so many other feelings they might develop with this simple action of sharing jobs. I have already worked at schools where students don't really have the feeling that the school belongs to them and that they do not have any kind of responsibility over it. I can say that the result is not good. Students don't develop a sense of belonging and the consequences can be unwanted ones.

   According to some American scientists, kids who feel connected to school are more likely to have good grades, higher test scores, attend school more regularly or even stay in school longer hours. On the other hand, when this sense of belonging is not there, it is possible that children develop some undesirable attitudes such as smoke cigarettes, have sexual intercourse, carry a weapon or become involved in violence, be injured from drinking and driving or not wearing seat belts (closer to the reality of a 5th grader!), have emotional distress or eating disorders, and even consider to attempt suicide. Pretty bad, right?

   I don't believe that this responsibility should be over teachers' shoulders only. This document  shows how parents can help creating this connection with the school. However, I do think that information like this should be shared with parents so they understand the importance of helping teachers develop the feeling in their children.

  The job a student holds in a school goes way beyond the duty of a helper. Students need to know that their school belongs to them. There is no school without students and the message should be spread so we, as teachers, can continue to ensure every student has the choice of having a good future. 

Resources:

www.cdc.gov/HealthyYouth/health_and_academics/index.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/protective/pdf/connectedness_parents.pdf