Where are the Essentials?
By: Anne Clark

An instructor has specific needs in regard to what types of furniture will best suit his or her teaching. Thus, the right classroom furniture is essential for the teacher in order to conduct his or her class in an orderly fashion.

Teacher’s Desk
A teacher’s desk is one of the most important if not the most important piece of classroom furniture. If teaching elementary through high school (or K-12), the teacher is very unlikely to have his or her own office, as many college professors do. Thus, the teacher must have a desk that will be able to contain and organize all of the students work: graded, un-graded, charting individual student progress, etc. The teacher will have a system for organization, and if the desk is not big enough, or if the drawers are not spacious enough, or if the drawers are too hard to work with, there will be major problems.

Filing Cabinets
If there are major problems of the nature I addressed above with your classroom furniture, one alternative to purchasing a new desk for the teacher when the current desk is inadequate would be to purchase a filing cabinet for the teacher to keep beside the desk; this way, he or she can be more organized. This may be a much less expensive option.

Desks for Elementary Students
When considering classroom furniture, namely desks for students, depending on the age group, children should have specific types of desks. Younger children in elementary school--or any students who remain in the same classroom all day--will need desks where they can also store their class materials. This is typical for elementary grades--a desk that is relatively large and opens completely so that children can store their books, pencils, papers, assignments, etc.

Desks for Older Students
When the students are older, they will have lockers in the hallways for storing their class materials. Therefore, a desk similar to those used in elementary classrooms would not be appropriate. The desks that middle school and high school students usually require will have much smaller surfaces and will have no drawers or openings of any kind. The best ones come with a little groove across the top where they can set a pencil or a pen so that it does not roll off the desk. The chairs are plain, and the desks themselves are not too costly.

Shelves
When you consider what classroom furniture you will need, do not forget about shelves. Shelves are important for storing class resources such as books, learning tools, special rewards, stickers, equipment needed for science experiments, etc. Elementary classrooms have more use for shelves than the older grades, simply because the older students usually have everything they need. Often if there are shelves there will be only a few—and they will be small.

Of course, science class is one of the exceptions to the rule. In this case, the classroom furniture needed will be the setup for a science lab area. The tables and work stations in that area will usually have shelves and drawers to store things like beakers, droppers, microscopes, etc. Thus, any shelves required around the rest of the classroom will be few to none.

Anne Clarke is with Homeroom Teacher Supplies.

Sidebar
Furniture Considerations

According to Lee Bielinki, direct & interactive senior market manager for Hertz Furniture, there are several things that schools need to consider when ordering furniture.

A few questions to ask are “Does distributor have a track record of on-time delivery?” and “Do they have proper project management?”

With classroom furniture, determine if you want soft or hard plastic. Soft is lighter, but hard is more durable.
 
You should request a CAD-design drawing of computer lab before ordering computer furniture.

Schools are going to the concept of cafetorium, which is an auditorium and cafeteria at the same time. The advantage is that you can easily turn from one into the other in a short span of time.

With regard to the library, be careful to use shelving that is not pressed wood. Also, the pins that hold the shelves should be designed in such a way that they don’t slip out.

Freight is a large percentage of the cost. You can minimize the cost by making sure that the shipping point is close to the school. Also, you can ship palletized to reduce shipping cost. Boxes add cost and take up more room

Finally, beware of false information (misleading lead times, billing different than quoted).