What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 20

An empty baggie?

I have this baggie in my desk. It is empty. I can't remember when I put it in there either. But it's a sign of my frugality, and my packrat nature. Because I'm sure I'll find some use for it!

I remember one of my education professors--nearly 20 years ago--telling us that "good teachers are 'scroungers'...they are always on the look out for things that could be used for teaching a lesson." I guess I embody that. I have so much stuff that has made it's way into my desk drawers "because I might use it someday," it's almost ridiculous.

I've been writing each day this month about something I have in my desk. Usually there is a story involved. Almost always there is something I can connect to some part of my teaching practice. Rarely are things just..."there."

I have a bunch more junk I could keep writing about, but all good things must come to an end. This series of posts has been an awful lot of fun for me, and it was a different twist on what I usually do on the blog; this is normally just a place for me to work out my thinking on whatever it is I've been reading about, or researching, or doing in my teaching practice lately. Thanks to those of you who have commented, or interacted with me on Twitter or Facebook, or even stopped me in the hallway to share your reactions to this series. That is the best part of all for me: when I get feedback from you folks on the things I'm putting into pixels here.

So as a thank you, here are eight more weird things I have in my desk, just to keep you wondering...

Do you clip your nails in class? Ewww! (I don't...)

A finger-flinger rocket...that has potential for lots of lessons!

Mmmmm...freeze dried coffee crystals... (I don't drink this stuff.)

Because everyone should have a rubber ear in their desk...

Sometimes pliers come in handy.

A bag of shredded cash...approximately $165 in this bag...

An inflatable microphone should be part of every teacher's bag of tricks. 

Looney Tunes are the best! That Coyote and Roadrunner...physics lessons!

So there you go, teachers. Consider becoming a "scrounger," if you aren't one already. Start stashing that weird junk someplace in your classroom. You never know when a rubber ear, or a bag of shredded cash, or a recycled sandwich bag will be just the thing you need for that lesson.

Keep it weird, my friends.




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(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 19

Snack time!

I am told--by people who love me very much--that I can be an unpleasant person when I get hungry.

"Hangry" has become a word. Hungry + angry. That is, unfortunately, often the case for me.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 18

A stack of little papers...

Those of you who read my blog regularly know that I'm a technophile. I love gadgets, and I'm always interested in learning something new. I regularly experiment with new technologies in my teaching practice too, so I've tried a lot of techie things to find out what my students know and understand. I've used Edmodo, and Socrative, and PollEverywhere, and Padlet, and others, I'm sure. And I've had success with each of these, actually. They do different things, and they have different strengths and weaknesses, so I use them in different ways. But all of them are good for what we call "formative assessment." (Just a little education jargon for your day...)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 17

How many CDs do you still have laying around?

It's interesting how educational technologies continue to shift and evolve. I wrote a bit about this a couple weeks ago when I was thinking about the filmstrip I have in my desk drawer.

Today I noticed that I have a spindle pack of blank CD's in there too.

My laptop has a CD drive. I'm trying to remember the last time I used it to actually play a CD or read information off of a CD-ROM...and I can't remember. Maybe last summer? Maybe it was the summer before that!

Remember these babies?
Image by Nafija55 [CC BY-SA 3.0]

I remember, back in 1998 when I first heard about Apple's then brand-new computer, the iMac, and thinking how crazy it was that they didn't have a disk drive. Remember floppy disks? I'm old enough to remember when floppy disks were still floppy. By the time I was in high school and college, they were instead rigid plastic. Today, the only example most kids have to picture a "floppy disk" is the symbol on the "Save" button in their word processor. (I once actually had a student ask my why that symbol was used for "save." I had to go scrounging through some boxes to find a "floppy" to show him. This was five years ago already...)

Okay, so Steve Jobs was a man ahead of his time, able to see the future day when we wouldn't need a floppy disk anymore. But how about the CD? I have this partial spindle pack of blank CD-ROMs in my drawer in case I need to back things up...but when was the last time I did that? I can't remember.

I also have several of these babies in my desk drawer:

When I was Tech Coordinator, I lived and died by the 32 GB flashdrive I kept on my keychain. It had all of my mission critical files, and they came with me all the time, just in case I needed them at a moment's notice. (And of COURSE I kept a back up copy, off campus, just in case...)

But I was looking at this flash drive, and I couldn't even remember what I had saved on it, because I wasn't sure the last time I had plugged it in to my computer. (Interesting collection of old files on this one...but I won't get into that.)

Today, most of my documents are saved and backed up in "the cloud"--saved on some other computer someplace else on the internet. Yes, I still keep files on my hard drive. But find I keep stashing more and more things out in the weird network of computers that collectively make up the internet.

I have this headset in my desk drawer too. I use it when I'm making instructional videos, so I have better audio quality. (If you'd really like to see an example, here's one I made to teach one of my classes some things about the history of middle level schools, which I created for my Middle School Curriculum and Instruction course.)

Why share this? I make enough audio and video files these days that my hard drive could be filled many times over if I were to save them all on my laptop. So I save them in the cloud--on YouTube, in the example above.

This has me wondering a bit about what's next? We went from "floppy" floppy disks, to "rigid" floppy disks, to CDs, to DVDs, to flashdrives, to the cloud in less than 30 years. What will the next 30 years hold?

And will we still use the image of a floppy disk to indicate "this is the button to click to save your work?"



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(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 16

Is that a banana chip?

This well-worn guitar pick is in my desk drawer amidst a tangle of paperclips and rubber bands. I know I've had this one for quite a while because the point is rounded and the printing is completely worn off. I must have used this one quite a lot.

I started playing the guitar at age 16. I can play all right...but I'm no rockstar. I can play almost anything that I have chords for, but I'm just strumming along, you know? I'm not the lead guitar in the band, if you will.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 15

"Oh...did you need to go back to your locker?"

Did you need a hall pass to leave class when you were in school?

In high school, we had these little slips of paper that teachers were supposed to fill out if you were going to be traveling the halls of school, indicating that you had permission to be out of class. I know a few of my teachers got sick of filling out those little forms, and took matters into their own hands. One had a 2-foot section of a piece of 2x4 lumber with his name written on it that served as a hall pass. Another took things a step further: since most kids were headed to the bathroom, his hall pass was...a toilet seat. (Classy, right? Unfortunately, I can see myself doing that too...)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 14

Well, that's a strange ruler...

When I was in elementary and middle school, I would not have characterized myself as a "math guy." It's not that I was horrible at math. In fact, I must have been pretty good at math, because our school had a tracked math program. Somewhere early in our school career (grade 2?) we had a formal assessment that put us into one of three tracks. As kids, we called them the "smart class," the "normal class," and the "dumb class." Our teachers never named them that way for us, of course (but you get the idea...and they may have thought of it in those terms too.)

I was placed into the "smart class," and we were generally moving a bit faster through the curriculum, so that by the time I was in 6th grade, I was taking "7th grade math." And thus, by 8th grade, I was taking Algebra 1, which normally would have been a freshman math course.

Here's the catch: I was, I think, one of the "dumbest" kids in the smart class. If I had been in the "normal class," I probably would have been one of the "smartest" kids.

Why share this story?

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 13

Go Carnivores!

This is an antenna ball from Jack In The Box. Yep, it's fast food at it's finest, and one of the great marketing ideas: you put a goofy little doo-dad on the antenna of your car, which actually serves as an advertisement for the company.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 12

The December 2013 issue of Christian Educators Journal.

I have several issues of Christian Educators Journal in my desk drawer. (It's a pretty good journal for Christian teachers...if you're interested, you can read earlier issues here.)

I kept this particular issue, because it has an article by yours truly included. Check it out...

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 11

What is that thing?

This is a foot pump that I keep in my desk drawer. I actually don't use it that often, but I'm glad it's there when I need it.

Why do I need it? I'm so glad you asked...

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 10

Have you ever seen one of these?

Do you know what this is? If you are under the age of 30, you might not. (Ugh...I'm aging myself here, aren't I?) Until I came into possession of this one, I hadn't seen one of these since I was in elementary school.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 9

Notecards? Who still uses notecards?

Did you learn to use notecards when you were writing a research paper?

I know I did. In middle school. And I'm pretty sure I hated it. It felt like So. Much. Work.

But I know I used that technique for writing throughout high school, and in college, and even in my Master's work.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 8

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

A mystery container!

In my desk drawer I have this container...which I think is an old tub for frosting (which I was thrifty enough to save, because I'm sure I'll find a use for it!)

What could be inside?

Oh, you'll never guess.

Here, take a peek:

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 7

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

What...is...that...?

Is that a bag of plastic meat?

Yes. Yes, it is.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 6

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

Can't be coughing on the children, can we?

Over the years, I've probably had half the medicine chest in my desk drawer. Today, I have cough drops in there. At different points I've had aspirin, Advil, Excedrin Migraine, antacids, Pepto-Bismol, DayQuil...you name it.

Why would I keep all these over-the-counter meds in my desk drawer?

Because even if I'm sick, I'd rather gut it out and just keep teaching.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 5

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

"You've got $1000 in your desk drawer? On a teacher's salary?"

Yes, that's a $1000 bill.

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 4

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

Mmmm...minty-fresh!

I almost always have a container of mints in my desk drawer. (Almost always. Sometimes I'm out. And then I'm sad, and miss them.)

You see, like many educators, I have a caffeine addiction. My beverage of choice is coffee. I generally have two or three cups a day. If it's a particularly rough day, I might have four. Back in the beginning days of my teaching career, it was five or six, but I got a little twitchy then. (And those of you who know me well know that I'm already a little twitchy by nature...can you imagine me after five or six cups of coffee? Yikes.)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 3

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

Glasses from LensCrafters, circa 1999.

I don't wear glasses. At least not regularly...not yet.

But I have a pair of glasses in or on my desk all the time.

This goes back to my first year of teaching, when I was serving as de facto Technology Coordinator at a relatively small Christian school. I taught 6th-8th math, and a high school computer class, and in all my "spare time" as a first year teacher, I kept the school's collection of (mostly donated) IBM 486 and Pentium computers running to the best of my ability.

What's in Your Desk Drawer? Day 2

(This post is part of a series about the weird stuff teachers have in their desk drawers. You can read more about this project here, and I hope you'll share the stories of the weird stuff you have in your desk too!)

Duncan Imperial. Emerald Green. Oh, yes...that's right.

In my desk drawer, I have an emerald green yo-yo. The condition of the string and the scuffs all over the outside edges will tell you that this yo-yo has been well-used. This yo-yo has been in my desk drawer since my very first day as a teacher, and I use it in class sometimes too (though not as often now that I'm teaching in higher ed.)

What's In Your Desk Drawer? Day 1

While working in my office over the weekend, I happened to be digging through one of my desk drawers looking for a particular doo-dad for a project I was working on. I was struck by the number of strange things I keep in my desk, and it got me thinking about what teachers keep in their desks and why.

Of course, there are the usual suspects: pencils, pens, erasers, scissors. There are probably a few oddities in our desks though--objects with stories of their own that have been placed in the drawer for a particular reason...or maybe for no reason at all, and now are just long-term residents.

My right-hand desk drawer...