small room

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Home : 2001 : July : 11

small room
By Carolyn

I know how you feel. I have had a few classrooms over the years I'd just like to forget about. After hearing about my "rooms," maybe you won't feel so bad about your own. Maybe you still will

In my first teaching assignment--sixth
grade--I taught in an open classroom building. There was no privacy at all. Kids in my "room" were continually distracted by what was going on elsewhere and vice versa. It was like working in a fish bowl. I really hated it.
The following year I taught reading classes in a closet. We lined up chairs lengthwise along the coat closet and I sat at the head of the row.

We tried to ignore the coats, lunch boxes, and bookbags as we worked together.

The year after that, I taught in a school's basement room with heating pipes going through the ceiling. It was often too hot because of the pipes. It was also dirty, because it was located next to the boiler room. It was an extremely small room for my class.

I also taught a few years later in a mobile unit. Yuck! Talk about horrible! It was extremely old. It had holes in the siding. They must have resurrected it from the junk yard. The inside had a ceiling that was falling down. The floor tiles were coming up. The lighting fixtures were suspect. The chalkboard was in poor shape. I didn't have a hallway to hang the kids' work. The trailer was dusty all of the time and smelled horrible.

I taught second grade two years ago in HALF of a mobile unit. Shortage of classroom space at my school meant building a wall to separate a mobile unit in half and PRESTO! we now have two classrooms instead of one! The principal explained to me that since I only had 15 students and second graders were small, there would be plenty of space for the kids. Yeah, the kids, not anything else! Try to imagine cramming a teacher's desk, a table, and 15 student desks into a room the size of your bedroom.

Now, I hope I haven't depressed you. I am just trying to say that things could be worse.

I wish you luck in your new room. Maybe you could tactfully suggest that you would like a room change towards the end of this year. Don't be afraid to speak up--in a nice way, of course.