The Day I Put the Carpet Away

Sometime after Christmas, the 4th grade students in my room lost their minds. 

The classroom culture and corresponding behaviors were on point. Until they weren’t. When we returned from winter break, I had to wonder if candy canes and sugar plums had gone sour in their brains because they were different kids. I cajoled and I threatened, I asked coaches and friends for ideas and I had more “reset” mornings and days than is reasonable.

And then.

I looked around at my classroom. Just a few weeks earlier I had made the purchase of nice, large, soft rug. It’s even washable! Much like the rest of the day, time on the carpet was full of reminders and prompts; nothing was working.

I’ve often shared the romantic notion that “the carpet and the classroom library is the heart of our classroom.” The carpet is where we share stories and ideas! It’s on that carpet that we get lost in books and solve problems. New words and new worlds are experienced there! But that was not what was happening. 

And so.

Just a few weeks after I’d put the new carpet out, I folded it up and sat down and looked at it. I sighed. 

I arranged the desks in a 4 by 5 grid, much like my own elementary school classrooms often looked in the 1980s.

The students entered the next day with a bounce and then a cacophony of shocked exclamations. They found their desks. One student declared “this makes me feel like I’m in middle school!” Another said, “Now, SHE won’t bother me anymore.” As they settled in, the morning bustle took over. One student pulled me aside. One. “But…Mr. Wheeler, what about the carpet.” I explained that there wasn’t room for it. She was disappointed.

The other students had their own realization as the day went on. 

“But where will we share stories?” One student blurted after lunch.

“Probably at our seats!” another responded in an obvious tone. 

I explained why I’d put that lovely carpet away and made no promises for the days ahead. I reminded everyone how well it worked during the first semester. Onward.

In many ways I have seen the student’s response as…relief. They had themselves grown tired of self managing their relationships, tired of the routine, tired of finding their work incomplete and their relationships fractured by conflict. If it had to be this way, fine.

I’m prone to hyperbole, but as an educator I have to be wary of ever saying “never.” The students need a responsive teacher. What my students needed was a classroom with more structure and rules than I prefer. It really is about the students.