Doing the Find-a-New-Classroom Shuffle

There once was a time when I accepted my classroom assignments without a peep, making do with whatever inadequate arrangement I'd been given, but too many classroom disasters have made me more demanding. These days I look over all my classrooms weeks before the semester starts and then I lobby various offices to get my classes into appropriate rooms.

Way back before classrooms were equipped with DVD players, I taught a film class in a room that required me to get down on my hands and knees in front of the entire class and crawl under the desk every time I needed to insert a video. Last semester, though, when my film class was scheduled to meet in a room with great big windows and no effective way to block the sunshine and darken the room, I did the Find-a-New-Classroom Shuffle until I'd located a workable environment.


And another time I was scheduled to teach back-to-back classes in rooms on opposite ends of campus, and even though it's a small campus, I would have breezed into the second class winded and worried about getting the computer going and all my stuff set up for classroom activities. So I did the Shuffle again, this time begging the head of another program to allow me to use their empty rooms. 

Another time I taught a class of 18 students in an auditorium that seats over 100, which was awkward and annoying. This fall I'm scheduled to teach an upper-level seminar with only six students in a room that seats 40. It's not a horrible room, but I would really prefer one more intimate, so off I go to the Records office to find out what other rooms are available (none in my building!) and then off I Shuffle to several other buildings, trudging up and down flights of stairs and examining the few available rooms to see which one will work best.

I haven't found the right room for my small seminar class but I still have a week and a half to work it out. I know the people in charge of assigning classrooms do their best with limited resources and I suppose I ought to be grateful. If nothing else, I'm getting some extra exercise.

Hey, I wonder how many wellness points I can earn by doing the Find-a-New-Classroom Shuffle? Someone ought to start a Shufflecise class!