Classroom Issues

[themerchentofvenus]

After a long time teaching in the same secondary school and terrible management (awful behaviour outside of lessons), I decided to change job.

New school is lovely, kids are (mostly) lovely, behaviour is good, staff are lovely but on my first day I discovered that I don't have my own classroom.

It turns out that it's a department of five people with four classrooms. Three of us (including me) are full time, one does 4 days and the other does 3 days.

The person who does 3 days a week is disabled so the classroom is theirs, which is fair enough. I use that classroom on the other two days, then a different classroom on the day when the other person isn't in, then the other two days I have 3 different classrooms, sometimes in a different building.

Some of my classes have 3 different rooms. It means carry boxes of books all the time, logging into different computers (which takes ages), different seating plans (all different layouts). ARGH.

Was I wrong to assume I'd get my own classroom? Should they have mentioned this in the interview?

When I worked part time I was used to not having a room, as that was fair, but all full timers I know have their own classroom base.

I'm finding it really stressful and it's taking the enjoyment out of the job not having my own "space", and I'm somewhat regretting my decision to move jobs. I feel like such an idiot for not specifically asking in the interview if I'd have my own classroom and just assuming this, as I don't think I would have taken the job otherwise.

So I guess I'm just trying to figure out whether I am wrong expecting my own classroom and I should have asked, or whether having the last person in to be the "floater" and moving all the time is normal, in which case I guess I'll have to suck it up.

I'm primary so no personal experience of secondary teaching, but when I was at secondary the teachers moved around the classrooms in the department. I just assumed that was normal in secondary 🤷‍♀️

It does sound a pain but I'm sure you'll get use to it. You'll soon get into a routine of what you need to take where and when.

This is the way it is in some schools. Secondary timetables are very complicated and the days of one teacher to one room seem to have gone. There are things that you can do to mitigate. You need a weekly plan so that you can ensure your resources are in the right place for each lesson as doing it lesson by lesson can be difficult. You need storage in each room. If you can make this secure even better. You need a classroom routine that begins while the computer is
loading up. It will get easier now you know what the deal is. It is disappointing though. When teachers have their own room they look after it and so do the kids. When rooms are shared they tend to be neglected and not respected in the same way, for example when there is cover.

Do students not take their exercise books with them so they are responsible? In all my years in secondary, students have always done this! Resources should be in classrooms.. if not the departmental office so easy to access.

In regards to PC - do you not have a laptop? Again, for the last 20 years every teacher has had a laptop - easy for them to work from any space in school and at home if they really want to!

You could ask your HoD but I doubt you’d get anywhere - there have been teachers there longer than you so it be them who have the priority. You also have to think of all the logistical changes required to the timetable to make this happen. I’d just grin and bear it but put things into place that can make life easier for you.

The pupils don't seem to take their books with them, although maybe I should make them do this as that would help?

I have been given a laptop so I can do work in my PPAs (although this took quite a bit of persuading and it's an old one as no budget for new ones).

The classroom PCs are really slow to boot up, but you can only be logged onto one PC, so I can't even go round and log in to all the PCs.

When I taught part time I hated having to swap rooms, hence going back full time once my kids started school as I got my own classroom. It was the norm in the three schools I've worked/trained in that full time teachers got the classrooms, then part timers had to slot round.

I have loads of stuff and models that I have collected over the years, which I use to help pupils understand concepts, but I have no classroom to put them in, and then just take out when needed.

It would help if the four department rooms had the same layout but nope!

I will persevere. I think it will be easier when I know 210 names, as knowing names is powerful, but I spent 3 years room swapping in the past and really didn't enjoy it so just feel a little exasperated that I've found myself in the same position again.

It’s really stressful. It is manageable - just - if you’re in different rooms but your classes aren’t, so Year 8 always in room 1A and Year 10 room 3b, but when you’re everywhere it’s awful.

I am two days a week and so this happens to me and is a major factor in why I dug my heels in about reducing my hours this much because I hate not having any sort of base or permanency. No real advice there I know but a lot of sympathy.

I can’t vote as I am a mix between the two options. We also have too many people for the number of rooms so there is a degree of sharing but as a full time teacher I am in ‘my’ room the majority of the time. My room is used by others and I am 2 other rooms (once in department and one in another building).

Moving around like you describe is very hard. Are there any room swaps youcan do with colleagues to lighten the load? Speak to you HoD and see if moving around can be shared a little to make it easier.

No one in my department is in the same room all the time,apart from anything else sixth are in different rooms most of the time.
the rooms are constrained by all sorts of issues and supposedly we should not have to swap between 1 and 2, 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 but in practice this often happens. I have one six period day where I teach in 5 rooms 😢
In our school it would not be mentioned at interview not to mis lead you just that it is the normal and it would fall off the list of things to tell a candidate, espas those of us who have worked at other schools in recent history alos had to move rooms.

I'm afraid it's just how it is in some schools. I've been nomadic on a full timetable.

Train the pupils to take their books and plan your marking slots.
For your models and other resources, if you don't have to negotiate stairs then ask for a trolley. There's probably one in a cupboard somewhere but if not get one ordered. Get some storage which is yours - ask for a cupboard in one of the rooms.
Speak to IT and find out exactly how the classroom displays are set up. The easiest and quickest option is likely to be taking the HDMI / VGA cable out of the classroom PC and plugging it directly into your laptop, remembering to put it back at the end. If this isn't possible then even if your system kicks you off multiple PCs if you log in regularly then your profile will be cached and it will load more quickly.

This is quite common. Lots of schools have fewer rooms than teachers and have to move people around to accomodate complicated timetables, pupils and teachers with disabilities, requirements for various facilities. It can be just as hard for pupils. I remember a year when i was about 14 and across a two week timetable my french class was in four different rooms.