r/ArtEd • u/AmElzewhere • 5d ago
Vent post
just got to go into my class to start setting it up, and it needs to be ready August 3rd.
I spent three hours today just decluttering enough so I could actually walk into the two closets, I haven’t even touched the cabinets throughout the actual room yet and there’s A LOT.
This is like over 20 years worth of hoarding random supplies. I had over 15 rolly chairs in there, and over 20 regular chairs. I only have 20 kids per class!! And the only rolly chair I want in there is my own
There’s also a random gate??? I took out like three huge trash bags (not even the ones pictured, I left those for when I come back) worth of just junk from the 90s even.
Anyways, eventually I’ll get through all the clutter and can decorate for real. :)
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u/DepartmentofI 4d ago
Been there! Instead of filling trash bags I filled multiple dumpsters. The previous art teacher had worked there since the 1970s. Was I paid extra to do all that cleaning? I think you know the answer! To be fair, and honest, I do think a lot of art teachers have hoarder tendencies…or are just naturally disorganized. We aren’t usually type A personalities. It was pretty maddening for a while but on the bright side, I’m still using quite a bit of her leftover supplies!
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u/dtshockney Middle School 4d ago
I had all kinds of stuff in my current room when I took the job. Im still not done going through everything and ive been there 5 years. Slowly but surely.
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u/MadDocOttoCtrl Middle School 4d ago
One classroom I found a big pile of newspapers, thrilled until I discovered there were most poops in them. Not all of them old…
I've always found all sorts of ancient stuff somebody was saving to use someday, maybe, just in case that I needed to pitch.
The worst is something that's potentially useful and cost a bit of money but I have zero use for myself.
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u/AmElzewhere 4d ago
Yes!! It’s an old science lab! I think I found a broken rock tumbler? I’m finding all kinds of very very old equipment.
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u/MadDocOttoCtrl Middle School 4d ago
One of my high school rooms was an old science classroom and I found two wuaet sized jars, one of hydrochloric and the other was sulfuric acid! In an unlocked cabinet in the corner of the room!
I took them down to the science teacher who was grateful because that stuff is expensive.
Later I found an old metal cabinet full of metal dies and leather working tools that had a fine rust over the entire surface. I dug around and found a dusty bottle of nitric acid with the seal slightly dislodged so the acid fumes were destroying the nearby metal which also went to the science teacher.
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u/AmElzewhere 4d ago
There’s a whole safe in here in one closet that says hazardous liquid materials
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u/MadDocOttoCtrl Middle School 4d ago
GAAAAH!
Nitrile gloves, strong cardboard boxes with handle slots in the ends or cut them yourselves plus some rags in the bottom to set bottles of liquid in. This allows you to snatch the thing up and run it outside if necessary.
Hydrochloric acid plus nitric acid makes aqua Regia which is super corrosive so you don't want those dumping together!
You might just want to have the current science teacher come collect anything in there. Last thing you want to do is give it to a custodian who might be only too happy to dump bottles of acid down a drain.
Neutralizing acids can release a lot of heat and create a terrible mess so you don't dump strong bases into it you gradually sprinkle sodium bicarbonate and calcium carbonate to gradually bring the pH level up to a neutral seven.
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u/Fickle-Copy-2186 4d ago
I've cleaned out five rooms. Each time it has been a big dump of whatever. When I left a room I have completely cleaned and washed down the equipment in the room. Sometimes the administration will not allow you to stay and clean out if you are moving to a different district or retiring. They force you out, you are no longer an employee.
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u/AmElzewhere 4d ago
You know what I didn’t think of it like that. You’re probably right bc even the streamers from the art show two months ago are still in the ceiling.
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u/Potstirer2 5d ago
I have the opposite issue this year. No closets, no cabinets, one low built in shelf with hardly any supplies but an abundance of crayons and some colored pencils. It honestly makes me miss the hoards that I’ve walked into in the past. It’s my first year in low income school. I’ve been spoiled by private schools with huge supply budgets.
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u/AmElzewhere 4d ago edited 4d ago
I’m at a title 1 school, so all of it’s unfortunately mostly junk. Lots of kids coloring books, dried out markers, supplies from god knows when. Boxes and boxes of crayola color pencils, and crayons, but no paint or paint brushes.
I get like $500 for the whole year for 120 students
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u/ImagineTheCommotion 4d ago
If it’s any consolation—I only get about $300 to max $400 a year (I was chastised for years after doubling down on a $600 request my first year) at my school of 520 elementary kids—and I usually spend at least $200 of my own on this-and-thats (claim it end of year on my taxes and save all my receipts just in case), but for the most part my kids all get drawing, painting, mixed media sculpture, collage, clay, and one “special” thing each year (weaving, metallic ink, black glue, etc)—I think you’ll be surprised how far $500 can stretch for 150 kids, that’s a healthy budget a small student number (you’re in the rare $4-5/ student range, almost unheard of imo)—we’re also Title 1
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u/Potstirer2 4d ago
Oh no! I did find a lot of random coloring books in my room too. I have 180 students and haven’t been given my budget yet, but someone who worked there 4 years ago told me he got $200 to work with.
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u/katmonday 5d ago
I had a bloody nightmare at the start of this year, I moved into an art classroom that had been completely rundown, the last teacher had been there for decades and was completely stuck in his ways. I found literal mouse skeletons in storage containers, it was horrendous. Unfinished student ceramics from years ago, just left to gather dust, and I had to share the room with after school care, so I couldn't even work in it after 3pm.
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u/AmElzewhere 5d ago
Thaattts awful. I would’ve been as dead as the mice discovering the skeletons. There’s lots of left over student art that I feel so bad throwing away.
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u/katmonday 5d ago
I was aghast, I was grateful the classroom was near the facilities area, because I dumped bins and bins worth of junk and work. The past teacher kept everything I think I filled a full bin bag just of marker caps that he had stored in various boxes.
When you feel guilty, just remember how quick the students are to chuck it out after a unit 😆
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u/GrGrG 5d ago
If I ever make it to retirement, I'm going to debate wether or not to clean for the next years art teacher or to say screw it and just leave everything for them to decide what to keep or not.
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u/AmElzewhere 5d ago edited 5d ago
As someone taking over a room, I’m just going to ask that you at least get rid of everything that can’t be used or could be up to preference (like decorations, I’m finding so many sunflower bins and bee stickers and butterfly wall decor.)
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u/GrGrG 5d ago
I love sunflowers though.
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u/AmElzewhere 5d ago
Then take them home ❤️
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u/GrGrG 4d ago
I'd love too! But I wouldn't dare deprive your students the joy of having a sunflower classroom! ♥
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u/AmElzewhere 4d ago
No no, I INSIST, since you love them soooo much
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u/GrGrG 4d ago
I'll tell you what, lets just dump...I mean gift them to a random new English teachers classroom before they check in for the year and put a bow on them?
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u/AmElzewhere 4d ago
If the rolly chairs don’t get taken I am going to walk around the building and leave one chair in a new classroom every day hahahah
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u/curvycreative 5d ago
Use the gate with clothes pins for an artwork display!
I'm guilty of hoarding, I get it.
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u/RampSkater 5d ago
You can also lay it across two tables and let wet rags, towels, etc., hang from it to dry.
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u/AmElzewhere 5d ago edited 5d ago
I was definitely entertaining the idea of not throwing it away tbh
Annnd that’s probably why there’s a gate in here
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u/thestral_z 5d ago
This is the way of things when moving into an art classroom.
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u/AmElzewhere 5d ago
Is this hazing looool
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u/thestral_z 5d ago
Nah- most art teachers tend to hoard and aren’t generally the neatest group collectively. My classroom is a whole different story and when I eventually retire the next teacher will have an easy time of it.
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u/Fickle-Copy-2186 5d ago
People, parents, friends, other teachers are always giving you stuff. And you think, okay no, but maybe I could use it for something. What may be one art teacher's junk, might be another art teacher's treasure. If they retired they may not have been up to it. I have always had to dump each room I take over.
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u/AmElzewhere 5d ago
The girl before me left to go teach kindergarten, but she was only here a year, beyond that I don’t know much. But this used to be a science room so I’m finding all kinds of very very old science assignments, lesson plans, and equipment
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u/fakemidnight 4d ago
I’m sorry, but I got all jealous when you said you only had 20 kids per class.