There are many teachers that have a perfectly clean desk and the student desks are neatly arranged exactly 50 cm apart. I am NOT that teacher. I am the teacher who recalls seeing a desk, but in the place where a desk once stood there are multiple piles of papers(known only by this teacher of the organization), water bottles or an iced tea, a stapler, folders, pencils, pens and possibly a lost 9th grader. My student desks are arranged in pods of four and I'm pretty sure they have no Feng Shui setting. The reason I tell you this is to let you know right from the start exactly what you are getting into by reading this blog.
I know that some of you (ok I am making an assumption that someone other than my husband will read this blog) may think that this makes me a bad teacher. However, I would like to think otherwise. I believe in organized chaos. I have worked with many colleagues over the years that can go to their file cabinets and remove a folder for the 3rd week of the 3rd quarter and have all of their plans, worksheets, etc., ready to go. Could I do this? Yes. Do I? No. One of the things that I love about teaching is getting to know what the students know, what they don't know and what they want to know. My own KWL to assess what to teach and how I am going to approach teaching it each year. Why do I do this? Because I don't care what the kids are supposed to know, I just want to know where they are and what I need to do to get them where they need to be.
It is not uncommon for me to have four to seven various copies of my tests/quizzes. It is also not uncommon for me to have three to four different types of assignments out over a certain topic. I have always tried to differentiate for each student and use the various learning styles to help each student learn. This would be one reason for my messy desk!!! As someone who is desperately hoping for my district to become a 1:1 environment, I have tried to use as much technology that the students may already have to cut back on some of this paper usage. However, as I listened to some teachers speak at a conference today I started thinking about my messy desk. For many teachers, the introduction of a laptop for each kid does not change much about the learning taking place in the classroom. Has the laptop become a glorified trapper keeper? If the laptop is used only to take notes from lecture or powerpoint and to turn in assignments, have we not just changed my messy desk into my messy desktop?
My goal for this blog is to discuss ways to use technology as a tool to change the learning that takes place in classrooms. I hope that you will join me in this journey and not criticize too harshly my sad attempts at humor and/or my path to changing the traditional classroom.
