The end of lapdesks?

Goodbye to Lapdesks

As I started packing up my class for the summer, I got rid of my beloved lapdesks.  I know, that might surprise you if you have been following this blog or even if you have been in my classroom in the last couple of years.  I have spent so much time and energy coming up with the best design for the lapdesks, constructing the things, and then over the years fixing and maintaining them.  And my students used them every day.  Then why, you might ask, am I going to get rid of them? 

It is because my students for the last couple of years did not use them in ways that warrants keeping the lapdesks.  The original idea of the lapdesks (the physical symbol of  Taking your Learning With You Wherever You Go) was for students to use them as a writing surface on the risers where students would sit sometimes bleacher-style, or use them outside or use them as stand up easels.  Instead, my students used the lapdesks as place holders, plunking them down in the morning where they wanted to work that day (risers, tables, high chairs by the window counter, the rainbow table, etc.). 

That sounds fine, doesn't it?  It sounds like a good case for keeping the lapdesks.  But students also used them for storage, packing along anything they thought they needed: pencils, pencil boxes, books they were reading, exercise books, writing portfolios, etc. My lapdesks could not store all the things students thought they needed. Despite gravity-defying balancing and over-stuffing the little lapdesks, all sorts of students' belongings could be found scattered around the lapdesks, on the floor, etc.  The lapdesks had to go.

Resurrection of the Storage Bins

Besides, I had an alternative that would work better than the lapdesks for the way my students were using them.  Remember those boxes that were unopened after two school moves?  I had these two big tubs of dissembled personal storage bins.  Remember these?

I cobbled them together during COVID from yet again, left over Ikea shelf parts.  At the time, I needed them because students needed individual storage, and I could not use the plastic sliding bins because to store them, students would have to come together, and the bins took up too much space on the floor and on the work surfaces.  

Re-assembled and painted storage bin.

Now, like then, the bins can store notebooks on their edges, pencil boxes, writing tools, and loose items while taking up a small footprint.  No more balancing, no more flying markers every time someone bumped or picked up the lapdesk!  

The ironic thing about these storage bins was, even though they sat in two big space-hogging tubs in my classroom, I had to haul them back to my garage to re-assemble, fix and paint them.  Some of them were in rough shape after being used and then broken down to be stored and moved.  I added some parachute cord as a handle so they would be easier to tote.  I'll let you know how they go.

Epilogue

In case you are wondering how I disposed of the lapdesks, I gifted them to my students.  A few students didn't want them, not knowing how they would use them at home. Fair point. One student took 4.  His mom was okay with it. I will be curious to see what they did with them.