Teachers, hold on to your desks! Your classroom footprint matters!
It’s always a thrill this time of year to see teachers on social media showing off their classrooms. Not only are teachers proud of their workspace, they understand that the ambience in those rooms is critical to how students feel about learning and school. Teachers often dip into their pocketbooks to make their classrooms welcoming.
Student desks are often arranged to maximize socialization. Tables are usually set up for young students. Teachers purchase couches, chairs, old bathtubs, bean bag chairs, rocking chairs, special lighting, and books to make their classrooms feel like home.
I have not seen the industrial rows of desks like Betsy DeVos always complains about. Middle and high schools might have desks in rows. It depends on the kind of classroom teachers get. They’re limited in what they can do with a room. If DeVos cares so much about school room arrangement, she should see to it that school infrastructure receives better funding.
I’ve heard of teachers starting school without enough desks! This is poor planning on the part of the school and district administration.
Dr. Bob Dillon writes about classroom spaces. He makes some good observations and gives interesting pointers. I like his ideas about using hallways and displaying student work. But some of what he suggests is worrisome. He sounds a bit like he is preparing us for the privatized classrooms of the future.
He suggests that teachers get rid of their desks to make room, or as he puts it “reducing a teacher’s footprint.”
A teacher may or may not use their desk. Many teachers walk around their classes helping students. But a teacher’s desk is an important symbol. It’s where teachers plan, check work, and think about their students and how they teach. I’ve seen this notion that teachers should get rid of their desks on a lot of pro-tech classroom transformation reports.
Along with getting rid of teacher desks, saying a teacher should reduce their footprint implies that they aren’t needed. It’s about technology.
Most teachers see the value in technology. But technology is a tool. It’s how teachers use it that will assist students.
When it’s suggested that teachers ditch their desks, it sounds suspiciously like teachers will be the next to go!
Dillon is promoted on EdSurge that hypes technology, and he’s written books about converting classrooms to technology. So telling teachers to get rid of their desks begins to make more sense, but not in a good way.
This ideology involved with getting rid of a teacher’s desk, includes putting children more in charge. That’s also on Dillon’s list. Helping students work independently is a good thing. But students also need a teacher’s direction. Teachers set the stage for learning, like they set up their classrooms.
Here is one of many vivid examples. Years ago, my child’s second grade teacher helped students create a rainforest. They converted their classroom into a rainforest by drawing and painting a forest. They studied and learned about rainforests. They read about how rainforests are endangered. They studied the animals and terrain and other interesting facts about rainforests. Then they invited parents to see their classroom creation. They spoke to us about rainforests. We learned what they had learned. Would they have studied rainforests automatically without the teacher’s careful planning?
Teachers introduce students to new information. They create the magic to help students learn, if they are given the time and independence to do so. They need those desks to think and work out the plans.
Teacher’s hang on to your desks. You’re still in charge, and students need your creativity! Your footprint matters greatly. Have a great school year!
If you remove a teachers desk, where are teachers supposed to have one on one conferences with their students? The desk is a powerful symbol not only of the teachers lead role in a classroom, but also of the teacher’s role as a model and a guide and a critical friend.
Yes! Thanks, Jo!
Como siempre, muy bien dicho. Que buenos pensamientos.
Cool! Thank you, Duane!
Here’s the thing Dr. D: canned activities, lessons, worksheets etc. generally suck. All of the very best teachers I have ever known mostly ignore them and maybe, occasionally find the seed of a workable idea. The canned software programs will mostly suck too. Sitting in front of a screen class after class, day after day will turn the best of these programs into white noise for the vast majority of students. They will be viewed by older students as a waste of time, seeing them as the electronic babysitters that they are, and left wondering why their teachers don’t actually teach. I learned years ago that serious students don’t want facilitators or guides ion the side; nor will they ever say, “I just love science! We have the greatest software program.”
I appreciate this. I think they suck too. The online lessons that I see always look like dittoes, only students get immediate feedback. Or they look like multiple choice questions. Big deal. Thanks, Rick!
Students need their desk to do work. Teachers do too.
Whoever says otherwise should get rid of their own desk first. And just keep walking out the door before they ruin other people’s jobs and other kids’ education.
I wonder when it will be time to decrease the footprint of the parent in the home. After all, don’t we want our children to learn what interests them within the family environment on their own terms?
Yes, You are right A teachers desk is really a very important symbol. No Doubt, many teachers walk around their classes helping students but still, they need those desks to think and work out the plans. Teachers provide students to new and latest information by creating the magic to help students learn. If teachers desks are not provided to them than where teachers are supposed to have a talk or have a conversation with their students?
Every teacher is different. They cannot be compared to the few great teachers we know, when there are millions we haven’t seen. The teacher desk is an important tool, and depending on the environment you work in, they are critical.
I work in a deskless classroom. Not a choice. When I do the countless teacher jobs needed such as mark books, type emails, prepare student work for display, write reports etc, I’m huddled over a childs desk or on the floor. Management will argue that we have all purpose spaces with adult furniture, but this is often in use or it is impractical to lug everything out of my room and set up in these spaces.
Management have individual offices and desks. Perhaps spaces that could have been allocated at break out spaces, IT hubs,sensory rooms etc for student but funnily enough weren’t.
While they make decisons about my work space, they retain theirs because their authority and comfort is worth more than mine.
My osteo is one happy chap …
Rebecca, that’s upsetting. Teachers deserve to have desks in their classrooms. I hope they will rethink their policy. Maybe you can set up a table, even a folding card table. You need a desk, especially with your health condition. Thank you for sharing. Good luck!
I don’t have a traditional desk, haven’t had one for about 6 years, maybe longer. It was purely my choice, because I didn’t like the teacher desk in my room. It was HUGE and ugly. It was a magnet for piles of papers and random things. So I got rid of it.
I still have workplaces in my classroom – my main work area is in the back of our room at the kidney table in my room, which happens to occupy the same place my desk once did. What once a space purely for me has become multi-functional. I do small group lessons there, do one on one conferences with students there, do my lesson planning there, and have PLC meetings there. All of the materials I need that would normally be in my desk are housed in a small cart within arm’s reach of my seat. My professional books are kept on a built in bookshelf within arm’s reach on the other side. A secondary workspace for me is at the front of the room where my document camera and computer for my Promethean board are. A smaller collection of “desk items” are kept in a small basket on that table.
I’m not advocating anyone else get rid of their desks because I did. It’s a very personal decision. But I certainly don’t feel like my teacher abilities are being stifled because I don’t have one, just as I feel that getting rd of a teacher desk doesn’t make a teacher better.
I think I said it is up to the teacher whether they use a desk. My point was that teachers should have the right to make that decision.
It sounds like you have a nice classroom. Thanks for your comment.