Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, October 20, 2006 6:33:31 PM
In my negative Friday blog, I mentioned that I had two extra days off this week. I spent most of Thursday organizing and throwing away in my classroom. Today I'm doing a lot of correcting and grading.
I'm very fortunate in this school. My predecessor was reasonably organized. He didn't organize my way and kept more than I'd like, but the basic structure is there. My first science job took me into a classroom that was so cluttered and disorganized that I could barely even function. None since then have been that bad, but what I've noticed is that science teachers tend to be packrats.
Part of it is the nature of the subject. Science teachers accumulate equipment. When it breaks, we remember life from before we had it and keep it in the hope that we can fix it. Sometimes we replace something but keep it because we remember how expensive it was. Another common thing is to see a "neat" piece of equipment that we hope to use "someday."
I can easily fall into this trap. However, I've learned that when I throw things, then I can organize what remains and actually use it. Empty drawers don't bother me. If I have extra space, then I can see and find the equipment and that makes me more likely to use it. It also makes the classroom look like the teacher actually cares. This in turn makes the students more likely to care.
The process is at its beginning in this school. It will get its first hurdle when I try ordering new equipment. After throwing, I'm already filling. The difference is, I'm throwing out clutter and replacing it with things I will use. Anything that is used is not clutter.