Classrooms Suck

There, I said it! Having been an occasional Middle School substitute teacher for the last two years, I’ve been in countless classrooms, teaching everything from English to Technology, across two counties. At first, I was a reluctant sub, but I did so at the urging of my sons. They would constantly share stories regarding their experiences with substitutes - the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. At first, I dismissed their request. After all, I was working on my start-up, which was exciting and very time-consuming. As I continued to deflect, they finally used their silver bullet - they used my own words against me.

As a father raising two young men, I work to instill in them a desire to serve and be of service. I remind them constantly that if they can respond to a situation, they have the responsibility to do so. Well, they pointed out that I had time in my week that was not taken by clients or projects. It was true, I had the time and I had the ability, so I took the responsibility. Thank guys!

So that’s a little background on how I became a sub; however, why I continue as a sub is because the need is real. So I will regularly spend one or two days a week as a sub - sometimes more, but never less. It is one of the most rewarding parts of my week. It is also one of the hardest. You rarely have the same kids or cover the same subjects from day to day. This leads many subs to approach the time as a babysitting gig. I hear them bemoan the pay versus ‘this or that’. Yes, it is true, no one is going to get rich as a substitute teacher - or a teacher at any K-12 level - and that’s part of the problem.

So why do I believe classrooms suck? Well let’s blame that statement on a prior position - I was part of the Commercial Interiors industry. I led a team that sold furniture to companies and schools to facilitate work and learning. Sounds great right? And it was, but we relied on others for the ‘thought leadership’ and ‘design guidance’. We relied on others to share how people work and children learn versus going to the source and seeing ourselves. I can tell you, firsthand, that how we think people work and learn is very different from how they actually work and learn. And in the case of education, it is different from subject to subject, classroom to classroom, grade level to grade level, school to school, and on down the pyramid. Here are just two examples.

First, polygon shaped desktops. Awesome right? We can arrange them in a ‘U’ shape or in various groupings to facilitate collaborative and group learning. Sounds good, right? Except in the majority of classrooms, they are not used that way. They are in the same rows and columns that existed when I was in school. So, why are teachers using them correctly you ask. They are! It’s just that they have the wrong desk for their subject, so they do their best with what they have. Had someone visited the class and witnessed the instruction process, they would have understood this.

As a secondary note on the subject of desks, did anyone bother to see what students carry from class to class and what they need to have active and available for instruction? It may not seem like much, but by reducing the size of the desktop to make the cool shape, students lose valuable real estate for these Chromebooks and notebooks (Yes, schools still use paper and should continue to do so! - topic for another time.)

This leads me to my second issue, technology. Chromebooks and interactive presentation boards are great tools. But what happens when you have twenty-six students, all heads down, focused on their computer, usually with headphones or earbuds all working on the same lesson at a different pace?

Well, let’s start with the realization that one-third of those kids are not working on the lesson. They are either playing games or on social media. And that’s if they remembered their computer or it has enough charge left to start up. No problem, we’ve got the main board, right? Yes, except the way most classrooms are designed the board is in the middle of the wall and the teacher ends up blocking the view of up to a third of the class as they are teaching. Again the lack of an ‘engaged and informed’ approach has created a barrier to learning.

So how can classrooms suck less? Simple, design the classroom for the subject. Prioritize the teacher’s needs over the students. I realize that might be a controversial statement; however, it is the teacher who gets the phone call when a child performs poorly. It is the teacher who wants the child to succeed in their class - so give them a voice on the design and tools within their four walls.

If you want to get crazy, here is a radical idea… What if teachers were given a budget for their classroom and they decided what it was spent on and how the room was configured within the four walls? They selected the desks and storage. They selected and configured the tech. They selected the… insert need here.

Having done this, I know the argument against it. We won’t have standardization. It will be a nightmare to manage. It will be more expensive. Yes, all of which may be true. But until you have spent time in the trenches and witnessed the issues and then connected the dots to everything from attendance to counselor visits, to test scores, how do you know?

So, if any of this resonates with you, reach out. I’d love to discuss further in the hope that we can make classrooms suck less.