When teachers marching to replace tattered textbooks is headline news, it's hard not to appreciate how fortunate our affluent school district is. When it comes to materials and supplies, our students have pretty much anything they need. There is some disparity in facilities, however. Predictably, the newer the building, the nicer the place and the stuff inside.
Our school is 47 years old, and the furniture in my classroom is original to the building. The wood veneer trapezoid tables and heavy steel and composite chairs have been in my personal possession for 25 years, so they are in relatively good condition, despite being over 20 when I was first assigned them.
Aesthetically, I like to think they have held up well-- my classroom seems classic to me-- but on days when I am giving a standardized test, the vintage furniture doesn't seem quite so user-friendly as usual. Mostly? It's the tables-- they wiggle and squeak where the metal legs are bolted to the wood veneer tops.
To be honest, I don't even hear it anymore, and the kids get used to it pretty quickly, too (well that, and it's not always that quiet in the room; learning is a noisy business, you know.) But today the squeaking was bothering everyone. "This test is going to take me 2 weeks!" one frustrated student proclaimed dramatically, "And I'm not even kidding!"
I pulled her table away from its partner, and the awful noise was mostly muted. When the day was done, I opened one of my storage cupboards and retrieved my trusty can of WD40. 24 spritzes later, I was sure she would finish the test tomorrow... on that iPad the school system gave her!
Our school is 47 years old, and the furniture in my classroom is original to the building. The wood veneer trapezoid tables and heavy steel and composite chairs have been in my personal possession for 25 years, so they are in relatively good condition, despite being over 20 when I was first assigned them.
Aesthetically, I like to think they have held up well-- my classroom seems classic to me-- but on days when I am giving a standardized test, the vintage furniture doesn't seem quite so user-friendly as usual. Mostly? It's the tables-- they wiggle and squeak where the metal legs are bolted to the wood veneer tops.
To be honest, I don't even hear it anymore, and the kids get used to it pretty quickly, too (well that, and it's not always that quiet in the room; learning is a noisy business, you know.) But today the squeaking was bothering everyone. "This test is going to take me 2 weeks!" one frustrated student proclaimed dramatically, "And I'm not even kidding!"
I pulled her table away from its partner, and the awful noise was mostly muted. When the day was done, I opened one of my storage cupboards and retrieved my trusty can of WD40. 24 spritzes later, I was sure she would finish the test tomorrow... on that iPad the school system gave her!
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