This is the 8th post in the @TeachThought 30-day blogging challenge. Today the question is: "What’s in your desk drawer, and what can you infer from those contents?"
This could have been embarrassing! I have forced myself to be honest though and photograph the main drawer in my desk entirely as I found it when I opened it up. Here it is:
If I'm honest this drawer is a bit of a window into the past. I put things in the drawer that I don't use very often. There's a hole punch, a stapler and some ring-reinforcers in there. I used to religiously file away all my teaching notes and document everything that I taught so that I could refer to it again.
These days I try to do away with paper as much as I possibly can, using a combination of Evernote, Google Drive and RealTimeBoard. The special Filofax hole punch - purchased at great expense - is similarly an item from another era.
The little tartan pencil case contains stuff for refereeing - whistles, a red and yellow card, garters and some spare football studs. Since coming to Oswestry, where we have a large team of specialist sports staff, the items in this bag have been sorely underused. Without the need to head out onto the games pitches three times a week I've had to really work at getting myself out from behind the desk and keeping myself healthy. Trips such as the one I carried out this summer are, at least in part, an attempt to keep the middle-aged spread at bay!
There's a calculator, again not used any more when it's so easy to tap a calculation straight into the search bar of Google Chrome. Then there are assorted rulers that have been left behind in my classroom and that I have failed to repatriate over the years (I didn't go out an by a Transformers ruler, honest!)
The Tupperware pot is useful - it contains pencils, spare cartridges and staples, the purple pencil case similarly has a stash of spare pencils in it. Having a job lot of pencils to dish out can be very useful when I'm teaching CCF and need pupils to write something down whilst we're out and about or on the occasions - thankfully rare - when I need to run an investigation of some sort. On such occasions I may need pupils to write statements but cannot, for the sake of the integrity of the investigation, let them leave the room of their own accord to go and get a writing implement. The glue and the sellotape are regularly used for my Y7/8 books. I tend to stick work in for pupils who have let their 'academic housekeeping' slide. I know some teachers will be horrified that I do this for pupils, but I find it saves a good deal of faffing time in class, time that is better used for learning about the subject than being engaged in clerical tasks.
That just leaves my name badges - one home-made one and a posh one - used for parent-teacher meetings and open days. The USB stick and SD card have obvious uses. I find I have to amass a large number of USB cards before the exam season starts and wipe them clean so that they can be used by the ever-expanding number of pupils who complete all their exams on computer. Lastly in the cork-lidded containers are rubber bands (always useful), paper-clips and drawing-pins. And (if you're still reading!) is that...!