To Desk or Not to Desk…
Hello everyone, and welcome to the Staffroom with Chey and Pav. I’m here with you today for Interlude number 18, called: to desk or not to desk. A few days ago, I received a question on Instagram about how to keep a teacher desk clean. This question really had me thinking. My instinctive response was, boy…am I the wrong person to be asking that question! My desk was always a mess! I don’t know what tips I’d be able to give, and even if I did find some great desk organizational techniques, I’d be a pretty big hypocrite to offer them to someone else! And then I thought to myself…wait, I don’t know that I’m the right person to ask about this, because…I actually no longer have a desk in my classroom! So then I got thinking about the whole desk situation. What advice could I offer? So I thought I’d talk about my teacher desk journey for this interlude.
When I started teaching, I did everything the same way I remember my favourite teachers doing it. I set my classroom up the same way, I organized the same way, I mimicked the projects and assignments that I could remember. There’s nothing wrong with a little bit of mimicry, after all - it’s a form of flattery, I’ve heard. I also set up an elaborate teacher’s desk, just off to the side of the front of my classroom, complete with pen organizers and pictures of my friends and family. The whole thing was so entirely cliche. It was the focal point of the classroom, where I put so much energy into making it look like my cool space. My zone. My little room within the room. It quickly became a place I would retreat to when I didn’t feel like interacting. I found myself wanting to be in my space when I was tired. It was comfortable, partly due to my incredible ergonomically designed desk chair, and it was full of power and authority. The mug full of red pens was there to prove it. I kept creature comforts, like chocolate in one of the drawers. No student was allowed to go near my desk - it was sacred territory.
This went on for many years. About 10. It was the same routine at the start of every year. I would organize my desk beautifully - with organizers, cute cups for all my stationary and writing tools, lots of post it notes, staplers, sharpies, photo frames with adorable pics, a nice fancy binder for my day book, and then in weeks it was cluttered with assignments, paperwork, notes and general mess. I’d go through the process of tidying, making my “zone” pristine again, and the process would repeat. It seemed to be working, but it was also quite annoying. It was such a monumental task to clean and tidy my desk. As much as I tried to keep it organized, it would just inevitably become cluttered and filled with stuff which was becoming too difficult to manage. I was, and am still envious of the teachers that manage to keep their desk areas so neat and tidy - but I was always too chaotic with the things I was doing in my day to keep the area organized. It was always just a wreck!
Two years ago, I moved into the Science Lab. I became the rotary science teacher, and inherited the lab as my classroom. The space is pretty tight. There are workbenches all around the perimeter of the classroom, and in the centre there is enough space for 5 large tables, which is where the students all sit. I have a workbench at the front, with a sink, for demonstrating hands on work, and off to one side there is a back room where all the extra materials and tech is kept. The teacher before me had her desk in that space off to the side where the back room is. It was out of the way of the class, but a dangerous spot for the teacher to sit, because it was out of the way and a visually blocked area. It felt very tight, and decided to move that desk out of the room at the start of the year, and go without one for the first time in my career. I turned that nook where the desk used to be into the MakerSpace, which has been a great work area for students. So I’m happy with that decision.
I had been doing a lot more reading about getting rid of our teacher footprint in the classroom, and making the space more about the students and less about the teacher. This is, after all, their space, not mine. I wanted that reflected in my classroom, and so making the decision to get rid of the desk was easy. But now, the lack of a teacher desk meant two things - it would free me up to walk around the class more and be more present and involved with students, but it also meant even more disorganization. I needed to arrange things a little differently now, because as we all know, teachers need STUFF! I wasn’t as concerned with the supplies. Pens and pencils could go in drawers around the room, and they would be available fo anyone to use, not just me. I was more concerned about my teacher related notes, my day book, a space for me to conference with students, a place for my schedule, a place for my files…there are so many little things we need!
One of my solutions has been to go as paperless as possible. When I receive notices or any sort of information on a physical piece of paper, I take a picture of it, and recycle the sheet, or put it into my GOOS paper box. I don’t keep things that I can save electronically. Having a google drive has made this process very easy. I use my phone and immediately organize the pictures and files in my drive.
I also keep all schedules in a folder on my phone as well, so I can access this information from wherever I am. This does mean I am on my phone more often, but, hey…who isn’t? Cell phone use will be a topic for another time, though.
I have very important information taped to my workbench at the front of the room. This includes a copy of my students schedule, a copy of my schedule, my duty schedule, medical emergency information, and a calendar of events for the month. I also have on that workbench, a binder organized into many different sections, which includes my day plan book. I keep it open to the current week, so that anyone who needs to step into my room can see what’s happening. And this is it. I don’t have a teacher’s desk anymore. If I need to sit, I have a stool which I move around the room with me. I sit at the tables with the students when they are working so that we can conference, but most of the time, I’m walking and moving around the room. I store the students work in bins that I have placed around the room, but mostly, we try and display our work as we produce it. It makes it easier to assess that way as well! I use my iPad to do a lot of assessment and as my grade book - there are so many great apps out there for this purpose now. I used to used TeacherKit, and now I use one called iDoceo, which is very comprehensive and great.
It’s not a perfect system that I have going - the room still gets a little cluttered, but now I don’t take responsibility over any one area of the room. It’s the CLASS room, and we always work together to tidy it up and make it the way we want it. I think it has been a great decision for me, as it keeps me up and moving, and getting my steps in every day, but it also makes my actions much more intentional - since there’s no real space in the room for me to get lazy. I’m glad I got rid of my teacher desk, and I don’t think I’ll go back to having one again. It’s been easy to relatively easy to re-adjust the way I do things in the room based on the electronic access we have today.
That’s my interlude for today everyone, thank you so much for tuning in! We always have a blast recording them for you! Please also check out Chey’s interlude, and also our previous ones! There are some awesome little topics and tidbits of information there for you.
WE’ve got some big things happening in the coming weeks - a new episode will drop every Friday evening, and if you are not already, follow the #EducationNeverDies hashtag as well as the Education never dies twitter handle, @EduNeverDies for some upcoming GOOD STUFF!
And once again, remember to Inspire don’t require, and always be a Humble Servant.
