Day Eight: What is in your desk drawer?
The answer to this question depends on which desk I am looking at; the wooden library table where I have my computer, phone, and miscellaneous and random stuff, or the other desk behind me that I don't use that much any more. I'll start with the wooden library table.
This desk has two drawers. The drawer on the right is where I keep pens of all sorts, bundled with rubber bands, a screwdriver set, a pair of needle nose pliers, and sticky notes. I also have the code for the staff room written on the bottom of the drawer. You never know when the code just eludes at the worst possible moment, like a weekend when not a soul is on campus. The left-hand side drawer is a paperwork drawer; the current Association contract, with original signatures, some older drafts of the current contract, school handbooks, faculty, high school, discipline, etc., and the WEA Membership Guide, from 2012-2013. Inside that guide, I have a printed copy of the newest issue, since they are not sending out paper copies anymore, apparently preferring for the locals to use their own paper. Finally, the Association copies of the enrollment forms filled out my new members are in the guide for safekeeping, or at least so I can put my hands on them if I need to. I also have copies of the codes issued to staff for the now-defunct media ordering system through the ESD. Since we no longer have media to order from the ESD, these codes are used for secured print jobs on the copy machine, but I guess I need to ask what happens with new staff, because new Client Codes are no longer being issued. Four rulers are also in this drawer, along with a few highlighters in various colors. Those should probably be moved - I have a box of them in the library. These are relics from a Step Up to Writing program we briefly used about eight years ago, another drive-by program gone by the wayside.
In the desk I don't use much, the most important drawer is the top-right drawer. I keep my tea in that one, along with a box of Emergen C drink mix, and random stickers, a couple of band aids, because it is inevitable that someone will have a scrape or papercut or hangnail, something that requires a band aid. It always used to amaze me that kids would just assume I would have one for them, and I usually do. I apply the band aid for them, and give their injured digit a little pat to heal up faster. In the left-hand drawer, the drawer-that-doesn't-look-like-a-drawer, there is very random stuff, bits and pieces of things that I haven't tossed. There are also at least two correction tape dispensers in the worst condition possible - once those things mess up, I always have hope that I can fix them, but of course they languish in the drawer, staring at me. How is it I can ruin them so quickly? I have at least one with the loop of clear tape coming out of the dispenser, a testimony to the fact that I really have no idea how to work with these things! I don't really like to look in this drawer, because it's a mess, and I walk away from it every single time.
The biggest thing I can infer from this collection of stuff is that I am a pack rat of the century. Why don't I just clean the drawers out and dump the garbage? I have no clue. I can also infer that I love colored pens - I've been buying a set of new ones every year for the last five or six years, and while I will eventually toss the busted ones, I love the colors. Why traumatize a kid with red ink when I can use green, or orange, or purple! I even have a set of sweet highlighters, in their own plastic case, and I enjoy using them. I've even let kids use them, and they love it! My paperwork drawer is business - and I need to have contract language handy, so I keep it right there. It's amazing how often I have to refer to it, and send specific language on occasion to clarify our responsibilities. My tea drawer is important to me; people know I keep tea, and they often come looking, usually the head of maintenance and the vice-principal. I never mind sharing. As for that messy drawer, that's the historical drawer, because it was my original desk, until I acquired the library table. Yes, I'm a pack rat. If I retire at the end of the year, as I anticipate I will, I'll clean both desks out so my replacement can start fresh, the way I did. For now, though, they are messy and filled with my stuff - marking my territory in a pack rat-ish sort of way.
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