Before I became a homeowner I was a property owner. Beginning with a blank slate and building my own place has given me a large store of object lessons in starting from scratch. The first and most painful truth that I have to face any time I start something is the need to excavate – to clear a place to build. It seems so unfair to have to dig down before I can build up. But there it is. Structure requires planning if it’s going to be useful and durable. And now, going back to the classroom for the 25th time, it feels like the first time. Where do I begin? The perennial problem. Maybe that’s a good thing.
I have a lot of experience to fall back on now which I didn’t have the first time ’round. But I also have a lot more junk. I mean that literally. Last year I had too many students for the classroom, and space was an issue. So at the end of the year I got rid of my file cabinet. It may be only a small step in making room, but it was a huge symbolic gesture. Getting rid of it means that I plan to rely on my own creativity and put the students to work creating their own materials as much as possible. I hardly used all the stuff in it, anyway. I put my lunch in it. I dumped things into the drawers, loose, and forgot about them. I rarely pulled things out to use. How could I? It was a mess.
Student files are the only things I maintain in any ordered way, and I have a large desk drawer for that. Because I had my hands full with administrative duties at the end of the school year, I did the natural thing and put all my files in boxes and then shoved those in a cabinet.
Now I’m facing my organizational crimes, and clearing the shelves. I’m teaching sixth grade, a grade I haven’t taught for a while, and my immediate task is to go through the piles of paper and toss out everything that seems unnecessary. I will be ruthless. Old workbooks, lesson plans, my classroom library, science materials… all must be given a brief but hard look before I decide if they are worth putting someplace besides the “pile” that is going out the door.
I am good at this purging. I do it every year. But this time is different. I’m burning bridges. Anything that’s really worth keeping is already in my head or on the hard drive of a computer. The problem with having too much stuff is that the physical world doesn’t have a “search” function, and I spend way too much time looking for things. I usually find things that I was looking for while I’m looking for something else.
I know why this happens. I’m an organizational rebel. I break all my own rules. People give me things that I can’t use, and I don’t know what to do with them. It’s time to break free of the past. I’m practicing non-attachment. I realize this approach isn’t for everyone. I admire people with tidy file drawers and neat desk tops. They have labels on folders that actually describe what’s in them. But it’s time for me to face reality. I will never be like that.
After 24 years, maybe I’ve learned something.
21 Comments
I know exactly what you mean. After 12 years in the same school I found out this Spring I would be moving my program (gifted K-6) to a new school. I’ve been teaching in the same field for 22 years and had collected ALOT of stuff!! I decided on a major purge and without blinking an eye was able to throw away or give away 50% of the stuff.
I realized as I cleaned that I teach so differently now, I write all my own curriculum, don’t buy prepared stuff, and use technology so much that all the handouts, old bulletin boards, old newspaper and magazine articles would do me no good. Of course I did move a lot–150 boxes of books, science equipment, math activities, etc. and computers, cameras, scanners, printers…all the good stuff. The rest of the good stuff will be popping into my head as we go along. Enjoy your 6th graders and let me know if you’d ever like to collaborate–I’ll set something up. N.
Thank you for saying so eloquently how I feel each year. It’s taken me ten years in the classroom to learn to get rid of things (mostly because I finally ran out of room for all the stuff).
The comment about the physical world not having a search function was an aha for me. That’s why I never use my files. It makes perfect sense now. I need to follow your lead and get rid of them.
Hey, Nancy and Jenny, it’s good to know there are other reform-minded pack rats. I’m in the middle of a MAJOR mess because of this. You’d think that it wouldn’t be such a problem, since we did move into a new building two years ago, and I purged then to avoid carrying over too much junk. I’d hate to think what it would be like now if I hadn’t done that! Of course, I’m finding some treasures as I go along. I need to “just say no” to a lot of that if I’m going to make it happen.
Thanks for the reminders about leaving behind the unnecessary and “put[ting] the students to work creating their own materials as much as possible.” I thought I would be transferring schools and made myself purge my files- two big file cabinets down to four crates of files. It feels good starting this year a bit leaner. While my subject matter (11th grade English) hasn’t changed in 7 years, the way I teach has (for the most part). BTW, I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog.
That’s just it. The way I teach has changed. Change is what education is/should be all about, isn’t it?
“The problem with having too much stuff is that the physical world doesn’t have a “search” function, and I spend way too much time looking for things.”
I’ll be teaching eighth grade language arts for the first time in the fall and I would love to browse through a veteran teacher’s “stash” for some classroom books, files, lessons, etc.
Teachers should have a yearly “flea market” to sell or donate stuff to other teachers who may have use for discarded items.
Ah, the big PURGE! After teaching at one school for ten years, Uncle Sam moved us to New Mexico, and hey, we had a weight limit. Children’s books *aren’t* light. Teacher resource books and files aren’t either, and since I teach kindergarten, much of what I had were manipulatives for math, science, lang/lit., dramatic play, etc. I took donations of three ring binders, one for each month, and sorted anything that was paper into keep/share/toss piles (yep, took inspiration from whatever organizational-reclaim-your-home-space show was on cable at the time) and only hole punched the items that had been essentials to me. Four file cabinet drawers and five bookshelves compacted into nine binders plus a binder for self-created assessment forms. I donated whatever doubles of childrens’ books I had to Gulliver’s, put the rest of my resources on the “FREE, please TAKE” table in the lounge, and invited new teachers in to buy what they wanted. I was surprised when it was more difficult selling my classroom plants- after all, some of them had been with me (or cuttings had been given to me by parents/students) since the beginning.
The move to New Mexico wasn’t bad, and I did a bit more of the purging thing as I packed up to move to Kansas. By last May, I didn’t have to get rid of anything. We’ll see where Uncle Sam sends us next! Have classroom, will travel!
No, husband won’t purge any of his Harley stuff. Ha! Have a great time with the sixth graders!
I too have/had this problem with my classroom. Every year I would tell myself that I was going to be more organized than the previous. This idea usually went out the door on about the third day of school. I would make a folder that was labeled “Important Papers”… I couldn’t think of a name for this folder because the papers I put in it were papers that I might need for some reason, later on. Needless to say, I never needed them. I decided to start just discarding papers that were in this category. Now, I strive to just have my life less cluttered.
Rebecca, we put stuff out in the hall. Anyone can rummage through and take what they want. This is exactly how I acquired a lot of the stuff I now have to get rid of. I know just how you feel, though.
In my first school assignment, I moved into an empty classroom with nothing of my own. I asked the librarian if I could borrow enough books for my second graders to have something to read the first week. She said, “If every teacher did that, there’d be no books in the library.” I checked out a pile from the public library, which is a place I should visit more often. Funny thing, though, one time I was there borrowing a bunch of books for the classroom and the librarian said, “What, they don’t have books in the school?”
Those two things happened years apart from each other, but getting hold of books seems like it shouldn’t be so hard. Now, I shop at Gulliver’s, the used book store that Michaele sold her books to. They don’t have as big a selection of nonfiction for kids as the library though.
Woody, maybe you and I should think about Michaele’s binder system.
Hi Doug and all,
Sounds very good.Stuff is made to be hoarded.
I had this clear out of files done a different way….same perhaps conclusions about my role…perhaps…( do you know the books by Eddings, Belgariad series, Belgarath is a character I think of when I think of you and this post…sorry… love this book series and this stance you are speaking of) The forced realization that I maintained when I kept on going.( Read once where this is the way of aging and the needs of the stages of life) First I moved rooms and grades every few years or every year. Attachment gets harder when you need to haul it. Older. Body hurts more. Then I taught two years ago in Heidi’s space, a very controlled space for her to cope, so without anything of mine even my beloved books. Last year I did use some of those but our relationship ( books to Sarah)has changed. Gave a lot away. Though will ever love books. Now I think utility.
But my story is interesting. Five or so years ago I went to leave the school I’m in. Jack got a job at the jr high so my kids over at his elementary would be stuck there with him unable to go get them and no parent working there and me realizing this was not good…they had all switched to his school from mine when I got so ill.Blah, blah. There is a point….
So I was transferring within the district.
This did not “go well” upset my Principal was seen as an act of defiance. Typical , when I really am not defiant people are sure I am…..and I taught summer school there and then learned of the need for D and C. To make a long story short my Principal was not willing to wait one more day for me to bring in my crew to get the room cleaned out-and very arbitrarily and “because she could” ordered the janitors to dump my stuff on the stage. They resented this so much and are such …well..anyway it was done to destroy. At least it seemed to me. They didn’t even have or use boxes and I easily had 3000 books alone. All the stuff I bought.
Doing so they broke every bookcase, dumped all files out of cabinets pilled every block everything. Pins mixed in with glitter , broken glass, thousands of pencils, spilling glue bottles. Nothing have i ever seen like this except pictures after a tornado. And yes the place I worked at BLAMED ME for years for the MESS I created for the poor janitors and it’s just like this where I am. Part of why it is so bad….can’t figure out anything but how to mess up.
It was like a heap at the dump.
Miles high. I have pictures. We went in with me recovering, Jack furious. And I actually damaged myself trying to haul it, which did push me to a hysterectomy, no choice. It’s a sad story but its about things and where they take you. Took me. I think I massive accumulated to offset my feelings of working in the poverty of mind there. It was a core thought I have anyway. Reacting.
And perhaps about my attachments.
I was so invested in my systems, my books, not in my files I think that’s a complete waste of time mostly my file cabinet held art samples and junk. I’m a portfolio builder and artifact maker. But until THIS summer I never actually sorted all of it completely just moved and moved and moved rooms areas places right back to this school in the strangest of circumstances.
And faced all of it in my summer of cleaning.Sylvia doing a lot with me, my daughter helping me clear it out of the way.
I’m sure that meaning is made right now and a year has to start at square one. Anything I do to neaten and clean and decorate is just anxiety spinning. And in the kids is really all we are there to attend to.
I got a kick out of reading here. You know I’m in head cleaning.
Last year i mostly wanted to write.
This year ….we’ll see.
That said I still want to go tie die some shirts to wear when we “get rainbow feelings”. I have that in me too.
sarah
Have to add something..it’s funny to me. I just told Jack(husband) I was reading your non-attachment piece and how it was my stance…or working toward or on that. Though i was sharing the coincidental nature of life.
He said , “I’ll put in the call to CNN and Fox in a minute.”
Then followed this with, “Do you still have the gold paperclips?” Which of course sit in a bag in the garage ready to go to school.i like the gold ones. Makes things more fun.Plus when a child stretches them out as we know a paperclip will do…I can go nuts with the “Is that the “gold” paperclip? talk.”
Then followed this with, “Who insists on keeping 10 huge tubs filled with stacks of every piece of paper the kids ever put a mark on.”
This said…I’m practicing thinking about non-attachments in my thinking.
Just a tip if you consider paring down and organizing with binders: if you tear apart teacher resource books (yes, I treasure books, have my favorites, treat them well, but if it’s copy masters, craft ideas, bulletin board inspirations etc., I tear whatever parts out that I want and I pitch the rest), save the cover and copyright info of whatever teacher book you’ve dissected, and hole punch it/them to the front of the stack. Because of the reproduction/copyright laws, if you send in items to a photo center/district copy shop or someone catches you in the teacher work room and asks if you have permission to copy, you’ll have the proof that you own the book and are allowed to copy. I’ve had two principals since teaching in the Lower 48 who thought they “caught me” when I submitted copy requests who then looked sheepish (and grateful) when I pulled the appropriate binder and had the copyright permission.
Sarah, “Attachment gets harder when you need to haul it,” is quite right. I’d add, “or find something in it.” The story about the your eviction from your classroom is hard to imagine. I understand the part about what it looked like. But it’s not so easy to understand why anyone would do that.
Michaele, I’ll keep the book covers if I ever get to organizing binders. That might be a project for another year – once I get rid of the big stuff.
I have been in the same building for 22 years in one capacity or another. I learned about my 12th year to throw everything out every 3 years or so. After that I never, and I mean never taught the same thing twice. It was new each year. About this time (2 years later) I started using the internet as my main source of curiculum. So it became easy now that I run blogs with my kids it is even easier, every thing exitst, movies, written pieces podcasts of material are all catolouged neatly in one place. I even present my lessons as blog posts most of the time so it works out quite well.
I was reading buddhism at the time I started throwing things out, and in response to the buddhist concept of now, and the concept of self as non static transient and ever changing.
Teaching, good teaching should have these elements I thought. So I don’t shoot from the hip, I carry a pretty good file cabinet in my brain, years of experience, but I do try to stay in the moment of the classroom, find new ways to teach things constantly.
Hi, Meredith. I added you into my del.icio.us network. “Lessons as blog posts”…an interesting idea. I’ve used the website I have for my students as a way to give them ready access to web resources, but I’d never considered presenting a lesson to them there. I see some possibilities – using a blog post much the way that I use the whiteboard in the classroom.
I do this all the time my classes blog last year was http://stufffromthelab.wordpress.com/ But the last 3 months or so were just presentation pieces. So you have to dig to see lessons. We do a film festival in June and after about March it is all about production. which I want to take The film festival online this year maybe middle of may make films housed on a blog next year, getting submissions from other schools, I made a contact with Ewan Mcintosh, and Marco Torres so perhaps we will have some films from the Scotts and the coast. If you know anyone who would like to participate please contact me. I want kids and teachers to reveiw films on the blog as well as submit entries. My kids are 4,5, and 6th graders, with emotional problems. Mainly inner-city kids from poor families. We are a small special education school in New York city.
I had the luck of meeting alan november about 3 yeas ago and everything changed for me. He has been to our school and we are having him back this year, but I really get my ideas, and the classroom where I learn as a teacher is here in social-media land.
I am a fan of yours watch your delicious pretty religiously and have gleaned lots of good stuff. Now look forward to reading your blog every few days on bloglines.
Very nice to meet you Doug
Sincerely, Meredith Broderick
Meredith, we may be able to generate an Alaskan film, maybe a couple of them, this year. We’ll see how it goes.
Like Michaele and others, I have found the act of moving to be an opportunity to throw out the old that is sorely needed. After moving to Oklahoma last year, it’s amazing to me to look out in our garage and see all the boxes that are STILL packed, that have stuff we STILL haven’t really “needed.” When we were packing up to move, I collected a large stack of paper notes I had taken in many of my doctoral classes, and thought to myself that it was probably useless to even pack them… I should just throw them away right then. Somehow I couldn’t do that, however, maybe I was emotionally attached to them because of the time and money that they represented. I find that if I don’t digitize my thoughts and ideas now, they become relatively useless in many cases. Certainly there are analog things of value, but in terms of notes I take and write to myself, those scrawls on pieces of notebook and scratch paper have a very short half-life. Collecting stuff is easy, getting rid of it is hard. I’ve even struggled with email for many years– getting an iPhone has helped, but the #1 thing that’s helped is adopting a “clean inbox” policy. Everything gets either deleted or moved into another folder, including an “actionable” folder that includes stuff I need to work on in the short term. Now if I could just make the time and find the courage to throw out all that stuff in the garage…..
People have been telling me, “If you haven’t used it in a year (or two, or three) then you don’t need it.” This rationale appeals to me, but now that I’m changing grades it doesn’t seem like such a good guideline. I traded 3 large boxes of primary picture books for credit at the local used bookstore. I’ll use the credit to buy young adult novels. Other than that, I tossed out several bags worth of files that were completely antique. I have a box from my graduate work that should be burned. Oh, and like Wesley, there is so…much…junk in the basement. I dread the idea of ever moving.
Doug – My school had asbestos abatement this summer. This translated is that all the floor tiles had asbestos, so all the floors had to be pulled up and replaced. This lead to the janitorial staff moving one wing of the school at a time to another wing, then back along with the stuff from that wing so those floors could be done and so forth so that my stuff move 3 times. I decided to “pare down” – I got rid of a lot of stuff AND discovered forgotten gems … like tomato seeds from NASA that floated around in space for 5 years … a piece of an office building that fell off during the ‘89 earthquake in San Fancisco that my wife brought me since I was teaching a unit about earthquakes – and some dust from Mt. Saint Helens —
The sad part is that if I had more time I could probably throw out even more … but what if …?
Hi Doug,
I have been visiting inlaws on the West coast of Florida and did not take a laptop, deliberately.
Wow an Alaskan film. I would love that even if we got our kids to interact a little bit on a blog. I would love that. I run a blog, Http://stufffromthelab.wordpress.com. I would love to start with our kids interacting on a blog. I teach 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th graders. I would love to introduce them to Alaska through your children. We could do it through a wordpress blog. Here is my direct email maitri27@mac.com. Perhaps look at an issue such as global warming or the Presidential election together. Please keep in touch. I am very enthusiastic at the prospect of some colloboration with you and your children share the idea with them and see what they think. School starts here in about 1 week. If you are interested I will introduce my kids to the idea the first couple of days.
Post a Comment