5 Things I Learned Teaching from a Cart

My school is crowded. So crowded we do not have enough classrooms for every teacher and every room is used during every class period. So even on their planning period, teachers have another teacher and class in their rooms. Being on a cart is hard. It’s a new organizational struggle on top of an already demanding job. Here are the things I learned from two years of teaching from a cart: 

1. You find new ways of explaining things. I am a teacher that likes to have a lot of stuff. I love grabbing manipulatives from the closet or having endless supplies of construction paper for students to create posters. I could not anticipate everything I would want and push it around with me all the time. So I became more resourceful. I used what I had available and I was probably the only one who noticed. The students have nothing to compare your teaching to. White copy paper works fine for posters and a quick drawing with a dry erase marker can be just as effective as manipulatives.

2. You get to know your colleagues and sometimes take away ideas from their boards. At the first school I worked at, I taught for six years and I don’t think I went into all my colleagues classrooms. In my two years on a cart, I made it into every single one. I got to know my colleagues this way just from having a two minute conversation every day. I also stole some ideas from them. One day I found this explanation of the Transitive Property on a colleague's board and I was able to start using it right away.

3. Claim some space as yours. This is something I changed between my two years on a cart. My first year I was new and felt very awkward going into someone else’s space. I spent the 1st quarter so nervous I would mess something up that I barely touched anything. Then I realized it was ok to stake claim to a piece of the room for me and my students. It was my space too for the hour or two I spent there. I found that by reserving a pieces of the white board, a piece of the wall to display anchor charts and a spot on a bookshelf to store essentials, the room felt more like mine. In fact a few of the students who regularly arrived after I was already in the room were surprised that the room was not mine. [Anchor chart inspired by iteachalgebra]

4. Pack light. As I said before, I like to have a lot of stuff, but I also like to not go home every night with back pain from pushing a hundred pounds around on a cart because I might need it. On my cart, I kept: my favorite pens, loaner pencils, water bottle, rosters, answer keys, a copy of my interactive notebook. If I needed something I did t have like scissors or post it’s, i would borrow from the room. (I am very lucky to work at a school that supplies our essential office stuff, I know this is not the case for everyone).

 I also found these totes at Costco. I like that they have a lid that clamps closed because they are bound to fall off in a crowded hallway at some point. I would switch these out with the daily activity.

5. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. All and all while my years on a cart were difficult, but it was not the worst. It challenged me organizationally in a good way to be prepared and really think about all aspects on my lesson in my planning. It also made me grateful for having a classroom to call my own. Here are the things I realized I missed most and am looking forward to doing when I have my own four walls and a normal non-pandemic environment:

• Greeting students at the door. I hated coming in the room after students because I can gather so much from that initial interaction
• Displaying student work and anchor charts. I had a very small area for this when sharing classrooms and I can’t wait to wallpapers the walls with it.
• Creating organization areas. I am more organized than my pre-cart days and am excited to use what I learned to create systems that make my classroom run efficiently.