The Rogers' tool(box). The life of a nomadic teacher

I love the privilege that accompanies my job of being able to pop in to lots of different classrooms to see the amazing learning that goes on. The downside is that I don't get to have my own classroom. What this means in reality is that I flitter between half a dozen or so spaces this year. That's better than last year when it was around 10.

The upside of this is that I get to glean ideas from lots of different classrooms. The downside is that it's difficult to establish routines, especially at the start of lessons, and to develop the 'learning wall' idea. One of the ways I try to manage the situation is this (other brands are available):

It's my mobile classroom stash that contains all of the stuff needed for lessons to run. Glue, cutty things, paper, pens, colours (I am a geographer after all), board rubber, computer clicker, stamps.

It all clips together so I can pull it along behind me whilst carrying a book box or two. These, pictured on the left in the image above, have my name on them and not only contain the exercise books (when they aren't at home being worked on by students) but any learning resources we need (including the geography secret weapon - the DVD).

It does keep me physically fit - my office is at the opposite end of the school to where I teach, and occasionally a set of books does go walkabout. This system also helps out with setting cover - which can be a total nightmare!

Anyway, I'd be interested to see what other systems fellow nomads use to cope with the situation.

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David Rogers

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