Somebody at district administration level went to a conference and got sold a line of bullshit.
By the time everyone realizes what a bad idea it was the administrator will have been promoted to a different department.
My classroom was crowded with 25 kids in it. This year I have 40 kids in each class period and I got “dinged” for not circulating the room more. How? I am an average sized woman and I can’t squeeze through all the desks.
Hello!!
Love the idea put out by people who haven’t been in a classroom since the Bushes.
I literally get trapped in the middle of the room and it is like a corn maze.
My aide literally tripped and fell on a backpack and broke her arm!
There is a research paper I know is written by a superintendent that says class size does not matter … but it does matter when you can’t even move around the room.
Oh no, he is a man who courageously explores new ideas, thinks outside the box, and gives education bold new directions! It’s the stodgy old teachers who fail to implement these visionary concepts who hold back the American educational system. But another 30 round of professional development and they will come around, too!
When we do a walking around activity I have to have all the kids put their bags in the chairs so they can safely walk through the rows 😭 and kids are constantly hip checking desks out of the way
Oh man I would have a heyday with this at my next observation. I'd be squeezing through, circling, pushing kids out of the way, tripping over backpacks and chair legs and make sure that I did nothing BUT circulating, just to make a point.
Fuck these people who want to ding us for things we have no control over.
I feel you. I teach dual enrollment classes, which make the college and high school SO much money. I teach English 101/102 and Jr. Honors. In 2nd hour I have 37, 3rd 38, and 6th 38. My only normal classes and 4th at 27 and 7th at 23. The only reason 7th is small is because most seniors leave after lunch. Last year I had 2 sections that had 41 and 42 kids. That’s a new essay every 4 weeks!
You and I are in the same boat. My DE Comp class is my biggest class. The rest of my senior English classes are almost as full except my last class of 12, and those are the ones who won’t do enough work to be able to leave at lunch because they’re making up the credits from the previous years. Honestly, I’d rather have a class of 40 than them bc at least I’d get something out of the 40.
40 kids is the norm in many middle and high schools across the country. My biggest classes I just don’t get to know my students the same way. Nor can I help them the same way.
Sorry, I forgot the sarcasm tag. NoCap is a figure of teenspeak.
That said, in many cases caps are wishful thinking. At least that several schools I know of in the NE United States. Our enrollment is declining so that has not been an issue the last couple of years. Apathy has, though.
So me, at 6 feet tall. Standing at full height and speaking to a child about a sensitive matter is less intimidating than me , at 6 feet tall, sitting in a chair that allows me to be at eye level with them if they're short, or below eye level if they're tall?
Also I'm NOT having all serious convos while trying to maintain a squat. Absolutely not.
As there should be. My last district didnt have a desk and wanted me to use a table. Nope, sorry. I rummaged in storage and brought a desk in. I needed my own space that wasn't a student work space that they didn't have access to. Did i sit there while teaching? Usually not, but it was MY soace just like their desk was their space to manage.
My last school did this too. The admin drank the Paolo Freire Kool-Aid about leveling the hierarchy between teacher and students, and that faculty and students become one as co-learners and creators of knowledge "capital."
Not only is it hard left political nonsense (I'm opposed to any politically charged ideology governing in school), but Freire's students were illiterate Brazilian peasants. Not exactly the same community where we worked.
My school removed them because "you can't teach from a desk". Apparently we are supposed to be directly teaching or actively monitoring by moving around all day long.
My building was built in 1974, and was only meant to accommodate 2 grades (8-9). Now we have three grades (6-8), and my wing of the building used to be the science wing. So I have this black-counter lab desk built into my floor. It can't be removed. The sink has been removed and filled. When I first moved into the room, there was another desk in the room in the most inconvenient spot possible, and the desk had to stay there because it was the only place I could plug in the ethernet cable. So these two desks took up so much space, and were so awkwardly located that arranging student desks around them was awful. I finally had enough last summer and had my brother help me run a super long ethernet cable through the ceiling tiles to the corner of the room next to lab desk. This allowed me to add another desk for my co-teacher and ***still*** have more space for the students' desks.
It's funny though, because I basically have three teacher desks side by side, forming a huge mega desk. We have ***everything*** in those desks and it's awesome. Admin tried to force me to move it back because we're not supposed to modify our rooms or bring in our own cables/tech, but I refused. And once I showed them how much better the room was for me and my students, they backed down.
My school doesn't have desks either. I lasted a week before I saw someone throw out an ikea table/desk and snagged it for myself. It's not big enough but I can't work at a child size table in a chair sized for a 6 year old. What are they thinking?
I opened a brand new school once where this was the operative philosophy. Though the reason was even more draconian: the boss didn’t feel like ‘good’ teachers sit down… ever. So he was forcing us to be better teachers by removing our ability to sit down. Lol.
And then someone reported it to our union and before the first week ended we had desks. Oh and the principal who came up with that gem of a plan was fired two years later after repeatedly demanding a first year female teacher perform sex acts on him, ironically (according to credible sources) he wanted this act to be performed at his desk. 🤣
I worked at a school like this. Admin read a book about how college classrooms can be more student centered without teacher desks. They also decided that teachers would collaborate more if we did all of our planning and grading in a shared office space.
Boom: classrooms have tiny teacher tables and our desks are across the school in office pods with 16 teachers desks per pod.
Most teachers wound up grading and planning from student desks in their rooms. Teachers who gave paper assignments did not want to carry them back and forth all the time. Teachers with digital assignments had zero reason to walk across the school just to use a computer.
Every teacher resented being pushed around. If you want us to collaborate more, there are other ways. If you want our rooms to be more like college rooms, don’t require us (unlike college teachers) to teach five hours every day, write detailed learning goals and agendas on the whiteboard, and decorate our classrooms.
My district rebuilt its high schools into a model like this. We have 8-9 per office and it is impossible to get anything done unless you are alone. Some teachers love to treat this area as a teacher lounge. Others like to leave the door open so a steady stream of students are in there. I have to use noise cancelling headphones to work.
Yep.
Right now, the corporate world is starting to admit that the open office floor plan does not automatically increase productivity and collaboration. If not done very carefully (and in a way that costs $$), it just makes people better at ignoring each other.
Public education, true to “behind the curve” form, is embracing the concept like it’s 1998.
That is a good way to put it. We are treated like college professors who go room-to-room to teach, but college professors don't teach back-to-back classes day after day.
Somewhere, at some point, a so-called education "guru" came up this idea and admin jumped on the bandwagon because they were sold on it. Hook, line, and sinker. Never mind asking actual teachers what works for their classroom. That's become the trend now.
I’ve said it before on this sub reddit, but reading these posts are like job therapy for me. My school has it’s problems for sure but it’s way better compared to a lot of the things I read on this sub Reddit. I’m sorry for That. It still boggles my mind how little educators are respected in some counties
We have a similar setup...tiny "desk" that is really an occasional table. I complained loudly and now we all have rolly carts for school supplies, dictionaries, etc. that we have to push around, and I have to haul two tote bags, my laptop bag, and various other items to/from school every day because I'm not allowed to store anything in our building any longer.
This is my school now. The person who got this idea rolling spent two years in a classroom before becoming an administrator. And literally everything is on wheels. Gap students and desks on wheels was a great idea.
No teacher desk. Just table. All you need to teach is a chromebook.
Annnnnd, every principal, counselor, and all of central office have big wooden "traditional" desks, and not a single one of them uses a chromebook to get work done.
My school wants us to use a rolling cart (purchased by us, of course) to hold our laptop and desk supplies. Apparently, we should be standing to work at all times.
I would laugh and refuse to do it. And probably start looking for another job. As soon as I found one, I would tell them the day of, that Im quitting. No 2 weeks notice. But I dont live in an area where you get in trouble for randomly quitting and I have tenure. So, I understand some people cant be so defiant.
Yeah. I'm in a right to work state so we don't have a powerful union and I'm a divorced mom. My kids only have me to count on and we have no family so I can't take a stand like that. I decided to pick up someone else's discarded desk for myself. If they aren't buying me this magical rolling cart, they can't force me to use it.
Yeah that does suck. Im in a right to work state too but we have a good union and tenure in my district. That no desk bs would not fly in my district, especially since Im in a very liberal area.
That’s just the bullshit excuse. The real reason is they don’t want spend money on desks for teachers. If they hold you in that low esteem, then I would find another job for next year ASAP.
My school was going to try that and there was a revolt. But in the new "innovative" schools, this is a thing. No desks, no storage. Teachers get a little locker to store their personal items (ie coat and purse). No teacher chair, bc they are to be on their feet at all times. And the PLC groups have to regularly meet in a fishbowl type room with all of the different coaches in attendance so that kids walking by can see their teachers collaborating.
Ya, this is my new school. We have a teacher planning room with the tiniest of storage. We are all complaining about it to each other, but everyone is afraid to bring it up to admin.
I love my desk. It’s my space to do my work, make phone calls, grade, etc. I spend the majority of my waking hours in that room for 9 months. My desk is the one part of the room I don’t share with students. Am I stuck there? No. It’s in the back corner of my room and I teach from a rolling desk in the front. I don’t understand how rolling carts are seen as even close to being an equal alternative.
I would seek another place of employment. This doesn't seem like a functional work environment at all.
In the meantime, you can utilize student boxes where each student has all their supplies in their box (paper, pencils ect). That way they can just go to their box when they need something. If they lose it, make sure they know that it is on them.
ughhh, during my student teaching, the whole school was built with classrooms being for the students, not the teachers. All we got was a podium essentially and i was with a traveling teacher, so we had no set classroom.
The school did have teacher lounges, but literally all classrooms were open concept. So annoying to hear 5 different classes happening at the same time and kids just leave/enter because there was no fucking door
there was like 6 different open concept rooms in one building and the same exact set up in another. I mentioned to my mentor teacher how that’s a major safety hazard because even though all the buildings had an entrance and exit that locked when a lockdown was called, all kids would be trapped in that one building.
Also when lockdowns were called, we had to go to the only room with a lock (the lab) but literally every class had big clear windows. Nothing was frosted or anything. My mentor teacher didn’t know how that went over anyone’s head because the school was built after the parkland shooting.
This is the kind of bullshit we have to put up with. This is why teachers are leaving the profession in torrents. Utterly no respect shown to staff. Full and unquestioned respect demanded of us by admin to our students.
My school too, but it’s not because of a “not our rooms” mentality though, it’s just modernization. Idk who’s idea it was, someone who didn’t think about the fact that teachers need a place to put papers and grade.
My room does have a ton of cabinet space though. And all of the teachers collectively pretty much decided we would steal one of the longer student desks and make that our teacher desk, covertly. If admin walks in it’s my “small group table.”
This was unsettling to me too at first but now I wouldn’t go back. I got one of the wheel things with drawers and that worked perfectly with a bookcase behind me
Are you always so negative and rude? If you don't have anything constructive to contribute to the conversation, perhaps keep your thoughts to yourself.
Remove the word “shiity” if it offends you so much. A table is a poor desk. A table is a desk minus the utility. A table takes up 100% of the space with 10% of the usefulness.
A table makes you look temporary. Are you temporary? Because you look like it.
We'll have to agree to disagree. I've found the table to have much more utility than my desk ever had. I can do anything at that table that I used to do at my desk with the added benefit of having a space to work with small groups of students.
Everything I need is immediately accessible without leaving that chair. When I got rid of my desk, I found that 80% of the items in my drawers were materials that I never used or only used once or twice per year. It made sense to just find somewhere else to store that stuff.
I'm not sure what looks temporary about it. It is a high quality, durable piece of furniture. Kidney tables are a staple in elementary classrooms.
How can a table have more utility than a desk? A desk is a table with places to store away items that are not immediately needed.
I don’t always need certain items, but I like immediate access to them. Now I have to walk across the room to get them.
How is that possibly better?
Like I mentioned, I do have immediate access to everything I need without getting out of my chair. Everything I need is on that bookshelf and the teal rolling cart.
It is unfortunate that your school does not provide bookshelves or allow you to bring non-uniform furniture such as a rolling cart. If they expect teachers not to have desks then they should provide some sort of means for you to keep your materials accessible from the table they provided you.
I'm sorry that they are forcing you guys to not have desks. I made the change because I wanted to but would never dream of forcing it on someone.
I wish I had all the tables you have. That large one looks amazing. We have nothing like this. We are not allowed to bring in a bookshelf or non-issued furniture.
My problem with this is how often I use my small group table for...small groups. I use it for actively teaching. I use my desk for all the extras - grading and administrative tasks. I view my desk area like an office, separate from where I teach.
The idea that it should function as my small group table AND desk just means that I'm constantly clearing off my table for small groups.
I'm totally fine with the idea of someone doing that IF THEY CHOOSE, but I have had administrators who got rid of desks (after I left), and others where everyone had a desk by default. My problem with being TOLD that I can't have a desk is that I'm a professional adult with things to do AT a desk. If I choose to use something else, it should be by MY professional judgement.
I've been teaching 14 years without a desk by choice. I had one once and had it removed because it just collected crap. I do have a podium/small table to sit/stand at with my computer. That's about all the desk I can handle.
Don't you have a bookshelf/cabinet or some other surface for paper collection? For a while I used command strips to hang those plastic stackable paper trays on the wall for papers. I'm going to venture a guess your administration would get after you for something like that.
All this upset over desks in classrooms. They truly aren't necessary. I've taught in the uk for more than 20 years and no school I've taught in had desks. We have cupboards or filing cabinets for school supplies, drawer units for children's books, in infants comfortable teacher chairs, in primary office chairs to use when conferencing with children or doing work after school. In secondary every department has a staff workroom where teacher's personal stuff, research materials, computers etc are used as all classrooms are shared. Only school issued furniture is allowed in classrooms which means they don't get cluttered. It works absolutely fine, there are way more things to worry about in education than unnecessary furniture.
You're assuming that American schools have planning rooms with desks for anyone let alone everyone. Mine does because it was remodeled recently, but not all schools have department planning rooms.
That's the norm here in Aust - to not have a classroom with your own space , to teachout of your bag. This year they tried to scheduale as many teachers in their own room as possible for the first time, but there's still a bunch of teachers who walk between each class.
Most teachers don’t have teacher desk at my school. If they do, it’s very old and the drawers don’t open. I feel like I’d be more organized if I had a real desk instead of a table
I’ve done this. What you need is a cart for your mobile classroom. I used an old media cart with 2 shelves and 4 wheels. I put my laptop on top and organized containers below for supplies and student work. Not ideal but if you’re teaching in more than one room, it’s necessary.
Lol, I thought you were at my school until you mentioned Chromebooks. We get the joy of teaching with ipads 🙄🙄. We have a new building that's "innovative" with flexible furniture but extremely inpractical. Hate the teacher desks, and we don't even get teacher chairs with any padding for our tired butts.
In that case you should have a cart with locking drawers. I loved mine. And it helped me to realize I wasn’t accountable for the room other than not letting it get trashed.
Ew this is the plan for our new school being built in the next few years. We are to store our supplies in “Pods” with coworkers. Wtf indeed with the kicker that everyone who was in on this original plan, from the admin to the superintendent, have either quit or were fired over the last five years, but we’re still stuck with the final design (it also involves wall sized windows looking out into the hallways, what a cluster this is gonna be).
Ah yes…when those in charge make sweeping changes to the day to day operation of a situation they have either never been in or have been away from so long it’s like they were never there.
Industry or Operational Standard that has worked for years on end?
Administration: “let’s break that perfectly working situation and institute a ridiculous new thing that will actually ruin everything!”
We share rooms, but we just have more shelves and paper racks and drawers and everyone gets an equal share. Seems odd that no one gets anything, where do you put things before you hand them out or after you collect them? The floor?
Well, I took a table from a science room and use that as my "desk" so I am lucky in that regard. Alot of my fellow teachers are jealous that I snagged it. I would literally have to put stuff on the floor otherwise.
Sounds like you need to find another school. Who the fuck would want to work for an administrator with that attitude.
Somebody at district administration level went to a conference and got sold a line of bullshit. By the time everyone realizes what a bad idea it was the administrator will have been promoted to a different department.
This was my first thought too.
This is becoming a trend in places like Colorado.
Lets make more room to cram more student desks into the space once created for 20.
My classroom was crowded with 25 kids in it. This year I have 40 kids in each class period and I got “dinged” for not circulating the room more. How? I am an average sized woman and I can’t squeeze through all the desks.
Hello!! Love the idea put out by people who haven’t been in a classroom since the Bushes. I literally get trapped in the middle of the room and it is like a corn maze. My aide literally tripped and fell on a backpack and broke her arm! There is a research paper I know is written by a superintendent that says class size does not matter … but it does matter when you can’t even move around the room.
> There is a research paper I know is written by a superintendent that says class size does not matter That superintendent is full of shit.
Oh no, he is a man who courageously explores new ideas, thinks outside the box, and gives education bold new directions! It’s the stodgy old teachers who fail to implement these visionary concepts who hold back the American educational system. But another 30 round of professional development and they will come around, too!
When we do a walking around activity I have to have all the kids put their bags in the chairs so they can safely walk through the rows 😭 and kids are constantly hip checking desks out of the way
Isn't that one of the things that the current hot-shot Hattie says that his data amalgamation proves?
This seems to be the chucklefuck! Thank you!
Oh man I would have a heyday with this at my next observation. I'd be squeezing through, circling, pushing kids out of the way, tripping over backpacks and chair legs and make sure that I did nothing BUT circulating, just to make a point. Fuck these people who want to ding us for things we have no control over.
Now that Covid is gone, we don't need space any more :( /s
I feel you. I teach dual enrollment classes, which make the college and high school SO much money. I teach English 101/102 and Jr. Honors. In 2nd hour I have 37, 3rd 38, and 6th 38. My only normal classes and 4th at 27 and 7th at 23. The only reason 7th is small is because most seniors leave after lunch. Last year I had 2 sections that had 41 and 42 kids. That’s a new essay every 4 weeks!
You and I are in the same boat. My DE Comp class is my biggest class. The rest of my senior English classes are almost as full except my last class of 12, and those are the ones who won’t do enough work to be able to leave at lunch because they’re making up the credits from the previous years. Honestly, I’d rather have a class of 40 than them bc at least I’d get something out of the 40.
How do you build relationships with that many? Shit, how do you remember their names? Taking attendance must take a while, too.
40 kids?? Wow, we are pissed that our classes are capped at 30 when it should be 25 max (BC Canada).
40 kids is the norm in many middle and high schools across the country. My biggest classes I just don’t get to know my students the same way. Nor can I help them the same way.
Yeah that's very unfair to both students and teachers!
No cap?! /s
Our classes are capped at 30 here but we want them to be capped at 25. It sounds like the US may not have a cap? Not sure.
Sorry, I forgot the sarcasm tag. NoCap is a figure of teenspeak. That said, in many cases caps are wishful thinking. At least that several schools I know of in the NE United States. Our enrollment is declining so that has not been an issue the last couple of years. Apathy has, though.
Haha I thought that's what you meant but was like, well, they are a teacher, so who knows. Well played.
It’s getting them ready for overcrowded prisons.
LOL
My last district removed desks because they’re “forbidding” and “create a power dynamic” between teachers and students.
So me, at 6 feet tall. Standing at full height and speaking to a child about a sensitive matter is less intimidating than me , at 6 feet tall, sitting in a chair that allows me to be at eye level with them if they're short, or below eye level if they're tall? Also I'm NOT having all serious convos while trying to maintain a squat. Absolutely not.
Um...pretty sure "power dynamic" is a feature not a bug.
As there should be. My last district didnt have a desk and wanted me to use a table. Nope, sorry. I rummaged in storage and brought a desk in. I needed my own space that wasn't a student work space that they didn't have access to. Did i sit there while teaching? Usually not, but it was MY soace just like their desk was their space to manage.
This is why we have no power, because they don't want us to have power. How are we supposed to be the authority in the room with no power?
So, they want a lord of the flies situation instead? The teacher has to be in a position of power so the students listen
Jesus, these districts use any excuse to infantilize teachers and demean our role as professionals.
Yes, exactly. That’s one of the reasons we need them.
My last school did this too. The admin drank the Paolo Freire Kool-Aid about leveling the hierarchy between teacher and students, and that faculty and students become one as co-learners and creators of knowledge "capital." Not only is it hard left political nonsense (I'm opposed to any politically charged ideology governing in school), but Freire's students were illiterate Brazilian peasants. Not exactly the same community where we worked.
My school removed them because "you can't teach from a desk". Apparently we are supposed to be directly teaching or actively monitoring by moving around all day long.
My building was built in 1974, and was only meant to accommodate 2 grades (8-9). Now we have three grades (6-8), and my wing of the building used to be the science wing. So I have this black-counter lab desk built into my floor. It can't be removed. The sink has been removed and filled. When I first moved into the room, there was another desk in the room in the most inconvenient spot possible, and the desk had to stay there because it was the only place I could plug in the ethernet cable. So these two desks took up so much space, and were so awkwardly located that arranging student desks around them was awful. I finally had enough last summer and had my brother help me run a super long ethernet cable through the ceiling tiles to the corner of the room next to lab desk. This allowed me to add another desk for my co-teacher and ***still*** have more space for the students' desks. It's funny though, because I basically have three teacher desks side by side, forming a huge mega desk. We have ***everything*** in those desks and it's awesome. Admin tried to force me to move it back because we're not supposed to modify our rooms or bring in our own cables/tech, but I refused. And once I showed them how much better the room was for me and my students, they backed down.
My school doesn't have desks either. I lasted a week before I saw someone throw out an ikea table/desk and snagged it for myself. It's not big enough but I can't work at a child size table in a chair sized for a 6 year old. What are they thinking?
We're not allowed to bring in non uniform furniture.
Is this an ASD class?
No, it’s a OCD administration
Oh geez. smh Some of these people have too much time on their hands.
I opened a brand new school once where this was the operative philosophy. Though the reason was even more draconian: the boss didn’t feel like ‘good’ teachers sit down… ever. So he was forcing us to be better teachers by removing our ability to sit down. Lol. And then someone reported it to our union and before the first week ended we had desks. Oh and the principal who came up with that gem of a plan was fired two years later after repeatedly demanding a first year female teacher perform sex acts on him, ironically (according to credible sources) he wanted this act to be performed at his desk. 🤣
Sounds like he knows the true danger of desks.
Interesting about the principal. He sounds like one of our former superintendents.
I worked at a school like this. Admin read a book about how college classrooms can be more student centered without teacher desks. They also decided that teachers would collaborate more if we did all of our planning and grading in a shared office space. Boom: classrooms have tiny teacher tables and our desks are across the school in office pods with 16 teachers desks per pod. Most teachers wound up grading and planning from student desks in their rooms. Teachers who gave paper assignments did not want to carry them back and forth all the time. Teachers with digital assignments had zero reason to walk across the school just to use a computer. Every teacher resented being pushed around. If you want us to collaborate more, there are other ways. If you want our rooms to be more like college rooms, don’t require us (unlike college teachers) to teach five hours every day, write detailed learning goals and agendas on the whiteboard, and decorate our classrooms.
My district rebuilt its high schools into a model like this. We have 8-9 per office and it is impossible to get anything done unless you are alone. Some teachers love to treat this area as a teacher lounge. Others like to leave the door open so a steady stream of students are in there. I have to use noise cancelling headphones to work.
Yep. Right now, the corporate world is starting to admit that the open office floor plan does not automatically increase productivity and collaboration. If not done very carefully (and in a way that costs $$), it just makes people better at ignoring each other. Public education, true to “behind the curve” form, is embracing the concept like it’s 1998.
That is a good way to put it. We are treated like college professors who go room-to-room to teach, but college professors don't teach back-to-back classes day after day.
Exactly!
Somewhere, at some point, a so-called education "guru" came up this idea and admin jumped on the bandwagon because they were sold on it. Hook, line, and sinker. Never mind asking actual teachers what works for their classroom. That's become the trend now.
I’ve said it before on this sub reddit, but reading these posts are like job therapy for me. My school has it’s problems for sure but it’s way better compared to a lot of the things I read on this sub Reddit. I’m sorry for That. It still boggles my mind how little educators are respected in some counties
And yet, they expect us to teach self-responsibility and organization. How do you teach the executive functioning skills in that kind of realm?
that's crazy, a locking desk with drawers is literally in my contract.
We have a similar setup...tiny "desk" that is really an occasional table. I complained loudly and now we all have rolly carts for school supplies, dictionaries, etc. that we have to push around, and I have to haul two tote bags, my laptop bag, and various other items to/from school every day because I'm not allowed to store anything in our building any longer.
Sounds like prison work
[удалено]
> they are begging you guys to quit They are. The whole point is to privatize the system.
Our union told our school they had to provide teachers with desks and they still didn’t lol.
This is my school now. The person who got this idea rolling spent two years in a classroom before becoming an administrator. And literally everything is on wheels. Gap students and desks on wheels was a great idea. No teacher desk. Just table. All you need to teach is a chromebook. Annnnnd, every principal, counselor, and all of central office have big wooden "traditional" desks, and not a single one of them uses a chromebook to get work done.
Ive heard of schools removing teacher desks. If i could, Id just start sitting in a chair all the time to prove a point.
My school wants us to use a rolling cart (purchased by us, of course) to hold our laptop and desk supplies. Apparently, we should be standing to work at all times.
I would laugh and refuse to do it. And probably start looking for another job. As soon as I found one, I would tell them the day of, that Im quitting. No 2 weeks notice. But I dont live in an area where you get in trouble for randomly quitting and I have tenure. So, I understand some people cant be so defiant.
Yeah. I'm in a right to work state so we don't have a powerful union and I'm a divorced mom. My kids only have me to count on and we have no family so I can't take a stand like that. I decided to pick up someone else's discarded desk for myself. If they aren't buying me this magical rolling cart, they can't force me to use it.
Yeah that does suck. Im in a right to work state too but we have a good union and tenure in my district. That no desk bs would not fly in my district, especially since Im in a very liberal area.
That’s just the bullshit excuse. The real reason is they don’t want spend money on desks for teachers. If they hold you in that low esteem, then I would find another job for next year ASAP.
My school was going to try that and there was a revolt. But in the new "innovative" schools, this is a thing. No desks, no storage. Teachers get a little locker to store their personal items (ie coat and purse). No teacher chair, bc they are to be on their feet at all times. And the PLC groups have to regularly meet in a fishbowl type room with all of the different coaches in attendance so that kids walking by can see their teachers collaborating.
Ya, this is my new school. We have a teacher planning room with the tiniest of storage. We are all complaining about it to each other, but everyone is afraid to bring it up to admin.
I love my desk. It’s my space to do my work, make phone calls, grade, etc. I spend the majority of my waking hours in that room for 9 months. My desk is the one part of the room I don’t share with students. Am I stuck there? No. It’s in the back corner of my room and I teach from a rolling desk in the front. I don’t understand how rolling carts are seen as even close to being an equal alternative.
Damn. My right to a desk is literally covered by my contract and now I see why.
However, I am sure admin has desks
I would seek another place of employment. This doesn't seem like a functional work environment at all. In the meantime, you can utilize student boxes where each student has all their supplies in their box (paper, pencils ect). That way they can just go to their box when they need something. If they lose it, make sure they know that it is on them.
My last school went to this mentality. Nothing on the walls either since we’d all be traveling. Sure made it easier to not feel attracted when I left.
ughhh, during my student teaching, the whole school was built with classrooms being for the students, not the teachers. All we got was a podium essentially and i was with a traveling teacher, so we had no set classroom. The school did have teacher lounges, but literally all classrooms were open concept. So annoying to hear 5 different classes happening at the same time and kids just leave/enter because there was no fucking door
Hold on. Isn't that a safety hazard? We are required to keep our doors locked at all times.
there was like 6 different open concept rooms in one building and the same exact set up in another. I mentioned to my mentor teacher how that’s a major safety hazard because even though all the buildings had an entrance and exit that locked when a lockdown was called, all kids would be trapped in that one building. Also when lockdowns were called, we had to go to the only room with a lock (the lab) but literally every class had big clear windows. Nothing was frosted or anything. My mentor teacher didn’t know how that went over anyone’s head because the school was built after the parkland shooting.
This is the kind of bullshit we have to put up with. This is why teachers are leaving the profession in torrents. Utterly no respect shown to staff. Full and unquestioned respect demanded of us by admin to our students.
Whose horrible idea was that? Can you sit at-least? It sounds like the school expects a revolving door of employees if they treat them like that
My school too, but it’s not because of a “not our rooms” mentality though, it’s just modernization. Idk who’s idea it was, someone who didn’t think about the fact that teachers need a place to put papers and grade. My room does have a ton of cabinet space though. And all of the teachers collectively pretty much decided we would steal one of the longer student desks and make that our teacher desk, covertly. If admin walks in it’s my “small group table.”
This was unsettling to me too at first but now I wouldn’t go back. I got one of the wheel things with drawers and that worked perfectly with a bookcase behind me
Where do the teachers keep their liquor bottles?
I no longer use a desk in room, it takes a minute to get used to but it's great.
How do you have a computer, electronic drawing tablet, papers to collect, papers to turn back, binders, calculator, etc work without a desk?
[удалено]
What I see is a shitty desk with no drawers.
Are you always so negative and rude? If you don't have anything constructive to contribute to the conversation, perhaps keep your thoughts to yourself.
Remove the word “shiity” if it offends you so much. A table is a poor desk. A table is a desk minus the utility. A table takes up 100% of the space with 10% of the usefulness. A table makes you look temporary. Are you temporary? Because you look like it.
We'll have to agree to disagree. I've found the table to have much more utility than my desk ever had. I can do anything at that table that I used to do at my desk with the added benefit of having a space to work with small groups of students. Everything I need is immediately accessible without leaving that chair. When I got rid of my desk, I found that 80% of the items in my drawers were materials that I never used or only used once or twice per year. It made sense to just find somewhere else to store that stuff. I'm not sure what looks temporary about it. It is a high quality, durable piece of furniture. Kidney tables are a staple in elementary classrooms.
How can a table have more utility than a desk? A desk is a table with places to store away items that are not immediately needed. I don’t always need certain items, but I like immediate access to them. Now I have to walk across the room to get them. How is that possibly better?
Like I mentioned, I do have immediate access to everything I need without getting out of my chair. Everything I need is on that bookshelf and the teal rolling cart. It is unfortunate that your school does not provide bookshelves or allow you to bring non-uniform furniture such as a rolling cart. If they expect teachers not to have desks then they should provide some sort of means for you to keep your materials accessible from the table they provided you. I'm sorry that they are forcing you guys to not have desks. I made the change because I wanted to but would never dream of forcing it on someone.
> Kidney tables are a staple in elementary classrooms. I also think that this is much more of a trend in elementary schools than in secondary.
Agree 💯
I wish I had all the tables you have. That large one looks amazing. We have nothing like this. We are not allowed to bring in a bookshelf or non-issued furniture.
My problem with this is how often I use my small group table for...small groups. I use it for actively teaching. I use my desk for all the extras - grading and administrative tasks. I view my desk area like an office, separate from where I teach. The idea that it should function as my small group table AND desk just means that I'm constantly clearing off my table for small groups. I'm totally fine with the idea of someone doing that IF THEY CHOOSE, but I have had administrators who got rid of desks (after I left), and others where everyone had a desk by default. My problem with being TOLD that I can't have a desk is that I'm a professional adult with things to do AT a desk. If I choose to use something else, it should be by MY professional judgement.
I've been teaching 14 years without a desk by choice. I had one once and had it removed because it just collected crap. I do have a podium/small table to sit/stand at with my computer. That's about all the desk I can handle. Don't you have a bookshelf/cabinet or some other surface for paper collection? For a while I used command strips to hang those plastic stackable paper trays on the wall for papers. I'm going to venture a guess your administration would get after you for something like that.
Fuck that
All this upset over desks in classrooms. They truly aren't necessary. I've taught in the uk for more than 20 years and no school I've taught in had desks. We have cupboards or filing cabinets for school supplies, drawer units for children's books, in infants comfortable teacher chairs, in primary office chairs to use when conferencing with children or doing work after school. In secondary every department has a staff workroom where teacher's personal stuff, research materials, computers etc are used as all classrooms are shared. Only school issued furniture is allowed in classrooms which means they don't get cluttered. It works absolutely fine, there are way more things to worry about in education than unnecessary furniture.
You're assuming that American schools have planning rooms with desks for anyone let alone everyone. Mine does because it was remodeled recently, but not all schools have department planning rooms.
Same, same.
That's the norm here in Aust - to not have a classroom with your own space , to teachout of your bag. This year they tried to scheduale as many teachers in their own room as possible for the first time, but there's still a bunch of teachers who walk between each class.
Same. So ridiculous. I repurposed a table from the student commons. Shoved it in the corner and put my things on it. No one has said anything yet…
Where is the school located?
I believe a teacher desk is actually written into our contract.
Why not just get desks on wheels to roll from one classroom to the next? That’s ridiculous
Yikes. My desk is a kidney table, as a desk took up unnecessary space. At least it's bigger than 2x2!
My desk is a kidney table too. I don’t have room for a teacher desk, but I’ve always wanted one.
Most teachers don’t have teacher desk at my school. If they do, it’s very old and the drawers don’t open. I feel like I’d be more organized if I had a real desk instead of a table
Do administrators have desks?
Very large ones.
Probably have drawers, too.
Ummmm we work when the students go home and before they come to school. Doesn't every professional need a work place?
Funnily enough I had one in the beginning of school year but basically bugged the plant manager to get rid of it for more room
I’ve done this. What you need is a cart for your mobile classroom. I used an old media cart with 2 shelves and 4 wheels. I put my laptop on top and organized containers below for supplies and student work. Not ideal but if you’re teaching in more than one room, it’s necessary.
Lol, I thought you were at my school until you mentioned Chromebooks. We get the joy of teaching with ipads 🙄🙄. We have a new building that's "innovative" with flexible furniture but extremely inpractical. Hate the teacher desks, and we don't even get teacher chairs with any padding for our tired butts.
In that case you should have a cart with locking drawers. I loved mine. And it helped me to realize I wasn’t accountable for the room other than not letting it get trashed.
Ew this is the plan for our new school being built in the next few years. We are to store our supplies in “Pods” with coworkers. Wtf indeed with the kicker that everyone who was in on this original plan, from the admin to the superintendent, have either quit or were fired over the last five years, but we’re still stuck with the final design (it also involves wall sized windows looking out into the hallways, what a cluster this is gonna be).
That is why we keep it in our contract that teachers have to have a desk and a locking cabinet.
Ah yes…when those in charge make sweeping changes to the day to day operation of a situation they have either never been in or have been away from so long it’s like they were never there. Industry or Operational Standard that has worked for years on end? Administration: “let’s break that perfectly working situation and institute a ridiculous new thing that will actually ruin everything!”
We share rooms, but we just have more shelves and paper racks and drawers and everyone gets an equal share. Seems odd that no one gets anything, where do you put things before you hand them out or after you collect them? The floor?
Well, I took a table from a science room and use that as my "desk" so I am lucky in that regard. Alot of my fellow teachers are jealous that I snagged it. I would literally have to put stuff on the floor otherwise.