If you have been one of the 7 faithful followers of this journey, you would know that I have been looking for the ultimate portable desk. In fact, the name of this blog came from the idea of portable learning anywhere. Having the risers in my class where students work in different places all over the room and in different body positions, regular desks were not going to suffice. So I started trying different kinds of portable desks.
First, were the $2 plastic document holders. They were light, gave a nice flat surface for writing and had a little storage, but they did not last more than a year.
Next, I tried dollar store clipboards. They were okay, but because of the lack of storage, students lost a lot of pencils. They were good for hanging up on the wall out of the way when not in use.
So I started making my own desks inspired by a wine box I saw. They were gorgeous and had some storage. Putting a clip on the long sliding lid made for a good clipboard and built in stand up easel. Unfortunately, these boxes were bulky, heavy, and used all of my woodworking skills, so they took a long time to build.
So back to the clipboards for a while.
Then I came across some shower board and played with an easel idea.
But I wanted to have some storage, and came up with this idea based on a boutique shopping bag. Between the great surface that could be used as a whiteboard and the shopping bag appeal in the design, this was a very popular lapdesk. After cutting the wood, it was a snap to build by using duct tape which gave a little pencil storage at the bottom. But that was the downside: the tape could not hold up to the rigors of being a lapdesk. Plus, the shower board is no longer available.
I started thinking about something sturdy and that had some storage. I was looking at what students had in their pencil boxes that they needed all of the time. I played with the idea of a zippered pouch velcroed to a clipboard, but my sewing skills are worse than my woodworking skills. I kept going back to the students' ubiquitous pencil boxes to figure out how I could replace them. That is when I had my eureka moment: Instead of replacing the pencil boxes, why not incorporate them into my design?
Enter my latest lapdesk incarnation:
The J.
(Yeah, I know. Ooh.)
The wood is cut from one large sheet of 3/8 plywood. It is light and sturdy.
The lapdesk stands up for compact storage, but can also be hung from the handle.
The solid wood bottom gives bottom ballast so the surface does not tip easily.
The clip is allows the lapdesk to be used like an easel. The lip, (the J) allows the pencil box to be nestled under the writing surface when in use or when stored.
When the lapdesk is flipped over, the "hook" part gives a raised part
so the user has a good writing angle.
The screwed-in solid wood bottom is strong enough to hold the angle in place
when written on (unlike the duct-taped model).
The writing surface is slightly larger than a letter-sized piece of paper,
but unlike other incarnations, the surface is not so big that grade 2 arms can't reach the top.
The clip can be moved to the side to keep the paper in place.
Below is a chart that outlines the qualities that I wanted in my lapdesk (on left) with the different incarnations of lapdesks (top).
|
|
traditional desk
|
plastic transparent document
holder
|
clipboard
|
box with sliding lid
|
shopping bag style
|
The J
|
|
portable
|
no, unless you are really strong
|
very
|
yes
|
somewhat
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
robust
|
very
|
fragile
|
somewhat
|
somewhat
|
NOT
|
hopefully
|
|
eco-friendly
|
no, but long lasting
|
not
|
somewhat
|
yes
|
somewhat
|
yes
|
|
economical (cheap!)
|
no
|
somewhat
|
yes
|
somewhat
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
buildable with grade 8
woodworking skills
|
nope
|
nope. I don’t extrude plastic.
|
easier to buy
|
sort of, but time consuming
|
yes
|
very easy
|
|
storage
|
lots
|
yes
|
none
|
yes
|
yes
|
yes
|
|
good-looking
|
can be
|
somewhat
|
boring
|
yes
|
very
|
yes
|
