Or, how long does it take to clean an empty desk
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| (c)2016 Douglas W Davis |
When I left for school this morning I thought for sure my
classroom would be all set up with desks and chairs in place by the time I left for home. That’s what I get
for thinking.
I spent 4 hours at school today cleaning out the teacher desk I
am taking over, the computer station table, and the upper cabinets into which I
intended to unload some of the boxes I’d brought with me from my old room. Some
of the boxes hadn’t been unpacked yet from when I moved from the 6th
grade building to the 7th grade hall.
There were 4 cardboard boxes – printer paper boxes in their former
life, and 6 plastic storage boxes – all but one is slightly larger than the
cardboard boxes. Before I could unpack any of the boxes, there was cleaning to
be done.
I started with the teacher desk. A good bit of elbow grease was
required to get the top of the desk clean. One corner of the desk had a dark
blot on it. I don’t know what made the blot, but I do know the previous
occupant of the room kept her laser printer there. Perhaps it was toner.
The drawers were next. The desk boasts 6 drawers. 1 wide top
drawer, 2 file drawers on the right side, and 3 drawers on the left. The two
upper drawers on the left are half the depth of the file drawers while the
third is another file drawer. Each of the drawers had to be dusted and then
wiped clean.
With the desk clean, I began unpacking the boxes. It wasn’t long
before I realized some of the items in the boxes didn’t belong in the desk.
Rather, they belonged in a cabinet. Fortunately, the room is blessed with quite
a number of cabinets. Unfortunately, the cabinets were also in need of a good
cleaning.
Eventually all but one of the boxes was unpacked. The last box
will have to wait until the bookcases in the room are moved back into place.
These bookcases are 7 feet tall, 4 feet wide, and much too heavy for one person
to move alone without scraping up the newly waxed floor.
One of the plusses of going through all the boxes was the amount
of stuff I was able to discard. I looked at everything I pulled out of the
boxes and if I hadn’t used it in the last year or so, and it wasn’t math
related, I put it in one of two stacks. Stuff I could give away went in one
stack. The second stack was stuff I threw away. By the time I was done, the
thrown away stuff could have filled one of the plastic containers. Some of the
stuff still in boxes I had packed up 4 rooms ago and never missed.
I did manage to get one piece of furniture moved; the table the
student computers will sit on. Of course, it needed to be cleaned off first.
Moving it was very easy. It’s on wheels.
Another item I cleaned up and put up today was a Sticky Note
Self-Adhesive bulletin board. I found three of them on top of the cabinets I
was cleaning. Two of them measure about 3’ x 2’ each. From the amount of dust
accumulated on them I’d say they’d been up on top of that cabinet for over a
year. I don’t remember seeing them on the walls in that room last year.
The board I cleaned up today is about 2’ x 1.5’. Using some 2-sided
tape I attached it to the wall next to my desk. It will be used to hold the
building map, phone list, and daily schedule. I had the building map, so it is
already up. I’ll have to wait for the other two.
Before I left for the day, I did go through my e-mail and add
duty items and meeting times my Principal had sent out to my calendar.
Just as I was about to leave, a few other members of the staff
stopped by to chat. In the interest of good collegial relations, I stayed as
long as they wanted to talk. It will pay off tomorrow when I ask them to help
me move those bookcases.
So, on unofficial workday 3, I will be cleaning and arranging
desks and chairs. Time permitting, I will also set up the student and teacher
computers and printers. If not, they can be attended to on the first day
official workday next week.
As always, I remain,
The Exhausted Educator
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