Sharing Classrooms
At the school I teach at we only have a finite number of rooms that can be used to classrooms, for whatever reason my class is is the one that usually gets the last say of what room we need for class that day, we have different amenities in different rooms. We also have a finite amount of supplies, i.e., projectors and laptops with appropriate school related software available. I have made it clear on several occasions to a few different administrators of what we need or what would make it easier to fulfill the needs of class, but my requests go to the wayside.
How can I make the best of almost never having all of the materials I need for my classes?
I wonder if it would be possible to have the students bring personal items from home to help have what you need from classes. our school suffers from not having enough rooms as well. If a teacher or student needs to borrow something from the room that they're not in, we simply ask and usually its not a problem to share. Maybe if You were to have the students grab what they need before class it would make for a less scattered problem.
However, budget constraints are a significant block for many items in many classrooms. This is very unfortunate, but is happening everywhere. Please don't lose focus of what you are accomplishing by showing your dedication to the education of your students. Hopefully your institution is able to adapt to your growing needs and will be able to accomodate all of the courses relevant to your area.
Joseph,
A simple response is do the best you can with what you have but that isn't really an answer because the frustrations of students and yourself are still there. As a strategy I would develop a specific list of needed items and media and how the lack of these are reducing the impact of instruction on the lives of the students. From an accreditation standpoint the college can be in trouble when their undergo their accreditation study and visit. You might want to point this out as well. Look at student retention in your classes in relation to the lack of instructional support items. Schools listen when it comes to tuition and the loss thereof.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
