What Do I Keep On My Desk?

This is my desk at the end of the second week of school. It looked like this almost every day last year and I intend to keep it that way!

Here is the first post touring my classroom! I will start with my desk since it's the closest thing to the door as well as the place where my school year starts and ends.

So what do I keep on my desk? The answer: as little as possible.

I can hear art teachers across the land sighing, gasping, and even tsking when they see a picture like this. The ones who aren't impressed were probably relieved when it came out a couple years ago that there is a high correlation between messiness and creativity. Those people can pat themselves on the back because they are in good company. 

See this article for pics of famous creatives' messy desks: 5 Reasons Creative Geniuses Like Einstein, Twain and Zuckerberg Had Messy Desks – And Why You Should Too

Einstein is quoted as saying, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what then, is an empty desk a sign?" As a genius, it's hard to argue with Einstein's implication that messiness means your mind is filled with so many brilliant thoughts that you can't be bothered with tidiness. But is that really the case? If you can operate in your work space with an overflowing desk then more power to your creative brain! If you operate this way but find yourself stressing about lost items, forgetting to do's, and getting distracted by a mess that you aren't proud of... I hear you!

Read: A Messy Desk May Spark Creativity, But At A Price: What Science Has To Say About Being Organized vs. Being Messy

I don't come by organization naturally. But there have been enough frustrating, stressful, embarrassing moments in my life to make me want to avoid disappointing myself and others with disorganization. This is something I work at every day and some days are better than others. My desk at school is one of the places I work the hardest to keep clear because while I am an art teacher and expected to be creative everyday, I am also an employee with expectations that have deadlines and a lot of little people counting on me. Part of why I like teaching art is that everyday has a huge variety of activities so I'm never stuck doing the same thing all day long. That short attention span gets terribly distracted if I have piles of papers and miscellaneous debris gathering dust on my work space. I also find myself moving things constantly when they aren't in their "home" so I'd prefer to touch it once and get it out of the way rather than painfully juggling books, papers, materials, artwork, and a laptop when I need to get some work done.

I know this goes without saying but teachers are notorious for working long hours prepping, differentiating, organizing, and changing students' lives. Unfortunately, our compensation doesn't always reflect our level of effort. To keep my sanity, I need a healthy work-life balance (don't we all ?!) where I have time to work out, stay in contact with family and friends, and make dinner with my husband. That means I arrive a few minutes before I am expected to be in the building, which is well before contact time starts, and try to leave campus when my contract says teachers' duties are complete - about 30 minutes after students depart. Of course I stay longer on days when I'm coaching or leading art club but that is the exception and not the rule. If my desk wasn't organized then I would never be able to make this happen.

I have two pieces of paper that constantly live on my desk. One is my daily schedule that lists which classes are coming and at what time. Sometimes I make notes on this if a class has missed a session and is at a different spot in the project than the rest of their grade level or little reminders if a class needs laptops, etc. The other paper I have on my desk is a monthly calendar. Check out the calendar here because the column headings are in rainbow colors so it's a little bit artsy without being distracting. Here I write down when I have meetings, clubs, and obligations. My system is simple but I haven't missed anything yet - and best of all, it's free!

The only other things you see out are a box of tissues - is there a word stronger than necessity in a classroom? - and some office supplies I use everyday. On one side there are a couple drawers that hold more office supplies that I don't want little fingers to find and some paperwork the administration wants us to have on hand. As you will see in the rest of my room tour I try to organize everything by proximity. I ask myself how often I will need it and where it should logically live. Like supplies are together and easily retrieved.

Since this is the first room tour post and there is more to see, I have a confession to make: I am NOT a hoarder! More sighs, gasps, and tsk-ing. I would never want to deprive my students of an art-making opportunity but I simply don't believe that a heaving room, overflowing with cast-offs and good intentions is conducive to quality artwork. If I ever received a donation or found materials for a someday project I would make sure that I had a good way to store it before bringing it into my room. Shoving a box into your storeroom and promptly forgetting about it is a sure way to waste materials. Keeping supplies in a haphazard fashion teaches our students to disrespect the materials we hold so dear. So I try to set a good example from the very beginning - creativity doesn't always mean a sloppy mess, especially in a shared learning environment like our art classroom.

Artfully,

Catherine