Teacher’s Corner

Your students must have classroom chores in order to become responsible students.

As a teacher, you must decide what classroom chores your students are ready for. Be sure to consider both the students’ skills (what they can do on their own) and their maturity (how well they stay on task and do what is expected of them). Different students will be ready for different responsibilities at different ages (“When Are Kids Old Enough?”).

In a classroom, chores can be cleanup and organization type jobs for the good of the entire class – putting things away, handing out materials, etc. Or, they can be personal chores like tracking one’s own grades, turning in homework, having materials ready for class, etc.

Read more about responsibility at

More about responsibility at Kids and Pets: The Basics and Kids and Pets: More about Responsibility, Love, Independence, and Loss

Writing Prompts and Discussion Topics about Responsibility.

1. Do you think chores are good for children to have? Why or why not?
2. Make a list of three (3) classroom chores that would be good for students like you to be responsible for. Consider things like putting things away in the classroom and things like turning in assignments everyday.  Tell why you think the chores on your list would be good?
3. Sometimes students may not do their chores. What advice do you have for teachers about how to handle that, if it happens?

Teachers, you can use this blog in classrooms. Here are two ideas about how.

1. For middle or high school parenting or child development courses:

• Use the blog for discussion topics
• Require students to research the topics and agree or disagree with what the blog is suggesting.

2.  For all courses, especially English Language Arts:

• Use the blog for writing prompts for paragraphs, theme papers, journal entries, class starters, etc. Have students read the blog and respond to:
  • Do you agree with what is being said about kids? Do kids really act, think or feel that way?
  • Do you agree with what is being said about parents, grandparents, teachers and child caregivers? Do or should they act, think or feel that way?
  • What would be your advice on this topic?
  • What was left out of this article?
  • If you were a parent, would you use any of this information? How?

Why can this blog be a useful teaching tool?

• Students that see connections between their coursework and their lives do better in school.
• Most students will either be parents one day or have children in their lives that they care about, so the topical information can help them build their knowledge about children and parenting and develop a positive image of the type of parenting they want to do.
• The new core literacy standards adopted by most states call for frequent writing in all courses.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can think critically. These prompts help students practice critical thinking.
• Newly developed end-of-course assessments to be used by many states will require that students demonstrate that they can analyze what they read. These prompts help students practice analysis.