I went to my classroom today for the second day with only one mission in mind. To organize, file, and clean up the piles that have accumulated since September. (Actually, I had one basket I found that was from last summer that never was completed.) I have been thinking about what would happen if the Coronavirus makes even the teachers have to leave school for a while. I didn’t take a before picture, but suffice it to say, my desk area–top, bottom and sides–was a fire trap.
When I was cleaning up papers and items from many months ago, it was so much easier to be ruthless. “I’ll never use this again.” “Finished with that!” “Why did I save this?” Not only did I file and put a lot of things away in my room, I also ended up with a large pile of scratch paper and three bags of garbage. But along with that, I also for a few treasures that I thought I lost.
Why do I do this? For 25 years I have taught, and I never seem to be able to keep my room in order. However, for today, it is ready to go.
