Stacie,
About utilizing a drying rack, I agree it is an art.
I have observed (very good) art teachers just letting students
put wet paintings anywhere on the drying rack. Perhaps it
worked for them but it would drive me crazy. I had an old
"Rack King" drying rack. It was great, some 40 plus inches
wide and it had about 44 shelves. We would empty it each
morning before classes started. We started the day with all
shelves in the raised position. Period one would use the first
few levels as needed. We dropped a sign on the last level the
used. Period two would use the next few levels dropping shelves
as needed and putting sign on the last shelf used. And, so
on through out the day. I trained my classes to utilize the
rack carefully. We did a lot of printing for which the rack
is a must. If we ran out of space I had two of those smaller
back to back drying racks that hold 12 x 18 sheets.
Of course if we had a day with a mixed up schedule
I had to be flexible. When we emptied the rack each morning
we stacked the work in separate piles (with the periods
sign on top) for easy distribution. Please understand I'm
as disorganized as most right brained people. But you must
impose a certain amount of organization to make the classroom
work. Learn to work smarter, rather than harder. That way
you will enjoy teaching and survive to retire. And retirement
is wonderful.
Woody
Ann Heineman wrote:
> Hi Stacie,
> Congratulations on your new teaching position!
> If you order drying racks, pay close attention to the size of the
> openings between the grids of mesh on the shelves. Some of these
> openings are too large a space to effectively handle smaller pieces
> of paper, like 9x12, so consequently they fall through and create
> big problems. I had to go to the hardware store and buy a special
> mesh fabric to shape and to tie on to each shelf, but that solved
> the problem. (My principal ordered the rack and I had no say in its
> design.) Learning to load/unload a drying rack is an art in itself,
> especially when you have multiple classes of elementary students
> needing to use it each day!
