Classroom setup

I finally woke up enough this afternoon to go to school and spend a few hours working in my classroom.

I reconfigured my spare plant stand to fit under my desk, bought some dollar-store storage bins to use with it, and ended up with a fairly decent setup for my desk, with storage underneath and a couple of chairs at the end for students to use if they need assistance with a project or assignment.

I turned the old desk into a storage center for things we use on a regular basis: notebook paper, looseleaf reinforcements, spiral notebooks, printer paper, and the like. The top of the desk provides plenty of space for pencils, tape, stapler, hole punch, paper, a few decorative items, and whatever book we’re using this week.

I still need to move the phone and printer and reorganize the shelves behind the desk, but otherwise, I’ve got it set up the way I want it.

I’m hoping that by swapping my old desk for a purpose-built computer table, I’ll have a better shot at getting the height of my workstation adjusted to a level that won’t cause muscle spasms in my traps.

During spring break, I’m going to fine-tune the whole setup by parking my phone nearby and taking video of myself sitting at my desk with my hands on the keyboard and my eyes on the monitors so I can compare my configuration to one of those diagrams that show the optimal ergonomic setup.

It’s wild to me that quiet, sedentary work in front of a computer causes me more pain than training dogs, mucking out stalls, turning compost, or cleaning kennels ever has. If I’d known what computers were going to do to my body, I think I’d have blown off those honors classes in favor of the voc-ed program. I’d probably still have chronic pain, but at least it would be respectable pain, incurred while doing something legitimately strenuous, and not this embarrassing nonsense caused by sitting on my arse in front of a computer for too long.

Emily