I have to say I expected the call.
After reading all summer long about teachers in other districts who were told to strip their rooms of any personal items so that more desks, at six foot intervals, could fit, and then hearing in our own school meetings that some staff would be asked to come clear parts of their room to allow more distant seats, I knew that I would be one of them.
I have had the same classroom since 1994, with the exception of a brief four month stint in "swing space" when they did a bit of renovation to our circa 1973 building. Over the years, as you can imagine, I have accumulated quite a few things to make the space more comfortable and efficient for my students and me, and I was quite sure that, at the very least, the reading chairs and pillows would have to go.
They warned us not to be surprised at the way our classrooms looked when we were finally allowed back into the building, briefly. The last time I was there was in June, and the place was frozen in time. The supply baskets on the tables, the paper in the recycling bin, the anchor chart on the board, and the calendar on my desk all looked exactly the way I left them on March 13.
But even though I expected a change, I was surprised: my desk was in the middle of the room, and they had moved several bookshelves full of books. Gone were the trapezoid tables, original to the building, and in my classroom since I started. They were replaced by 10 battered student desks in 2 rows, and all the miscellaneous baskets and bins that had been stored neatly away in just the perfect place were now stacked on the floor and my desk.
It took me a good hour and a half to move the furniture and put my other stuff away in my storage closet, a space I feel so very, very lucky to have. Who knows when I'll be back? Then again, who knows how much longer I'll be attached to that room at all?
Either way?
I'm going to have some serious packing or unpacking to do.
After reading all summer long about teachers in other districts who were told to strip their rooms of any personal items so that more desks, at six foot intervals, could fit, and then hearing in our own school meetings that some staff would be asked to come clear parts of their room to allow more distant seats, I knew that I would be one of them.
I have had the same classroom since 1994, with the exception of a brief four month stint in "swing space" when they did a bit of renovation to our circa 1973 building. Over the years, as you can imagine, I have accumulated quite a few things to make the space more comfortable and efficient for my students and me, and I was quite sure that, at the very least, the reading chairs and pillows would have to go.
They warned us not to be surprised at the way our classrooms looked when we were finally allowed back into the building, briefly. The last time I was there was in June, and the place was frozen in time. The supply baskets on the tables, the paper in the recycling bin, the anchor chart on the board, and the calendar on my desk all looked exactly the way I left them on March 13.
But even though I expected a change, I was surprised: my desk was in the middle of the room, and they had moved several bookshelves full of books. Gone were the trapezoid tables, original to the building, and in my classroom since I started. They were replaced by 10 battered student desks in 2 rows, and all the miscellaneous baskets and bins that had been stored neatly away in just the perfect place were now stacked on the floor and my desk.
It took me a good hour and a half to move the furniture and put my other stuff away in my storage closet, a space I feel so very, very lucky to have. Who knows when I'll be back? Then again, who knows how much longer I'll be attached to that room at all?
Either way?
I'm going to have some serious packing or unpacking to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment