- It's summer vacation,
and I'm in this room of my classroom,
which is normally a computer lab.
All the computers are gone,
but it usually looks something more like this.
(blues riff)
Here's my problem.
Last summer I spent the entire summer rebuilding
a broadcast studio in this door,
and it took like a whole summer.
Came out great, though.
This summer, my project is to fix this room,
because currently, it's really not functional at all.
It's in these rows, and that sucks,
and it's really hard to move.
Here's why.
Down here on this side,
all of these outlets provide network connection,
so we need these so every computer's
connected to the internet.
Every table has the wiring mounted to it,
so right now, they're all connected in these rows.
And then on this side is where all the power is,
so I guess the original idea was
power comes on one side, network comes on the other,
and then every computer has power and internet.
But it sucks because I hate teaching in rows.
It's really uncomfortable.
It's really crowded.
Like, this space right here.
If anybody is sitting here,
it's pretty much impossible to walk through here.
I'm going to spend however long it takes
to redo this space and make it comfortable,
and functional, and practical, and usable.
And the first step is going to be
removing the wires from all of these tables.
(metal scratching)
About an hour into this.
I have most of the tables unplugged, unwired.
I hate rows, and I hate it when students have to be
like, piled on top of each other.
So what I'm trying to do is create workspaces and areas,
where if someone wants to work by themselves,
it's easy.
If one or two people wanna work together,
it's easy.
Or if a whole group wanna work together,
it's easy,
but nobody has to be stacked on top of one another.
And I think I have an arrangement
that I actually like, that will work.
And it looks sort of strange.
Now, my extra credit assignment would be
to see if I can actually fit an extra table in here.
Because, honestly, at the start
of the school year especially,
I usually have more students in this room
than the room can handle
and to avoid having to have kids
sit on the counter or the floor,
if I can get more seats, it will make things
more manageable, because,
see, we can go over here, which is
my other classroom that I haven't quite gotten
back in order yet for the new school year.
There's plenty of space here,
but this room can only support about 12 computers.
And this big empty space over here
is really more of like, a production space
that's cleared out and kids can film things,
and we can set up photo shoots and stuff like that.
There is this big wall that divides the two classrooms
and I'm actually trying to get that torn down
because that would solve all of my problem.
But in the meantime, this is the room that has
most of the computers in it.
So especially at the start of the year,
this is the room where we spend most of our time.
But now that I have this figured out,
and I did add a bonus table,
it's more comfortable in here.
It's less crowded in here.
It's now wheelchair accessible, which it wasn't before.
And it can actually hold two more students
and two more computers than it could before.
So I'm pretty proud of myself.
The next step is to figure out how to wire all this up.
My goal is, today's Monday,
by the end of this week I would really like
to have this just perfectly ready to go.
Day two.
My goal today is to wire everything up.
I actually have
more seats than computers.
So that means not every spot needs to be wired,
which is great, because it's gonna reduce
the amount of wires I have to run.
So before I do the wiring,
actually wanna bring in all the computers
and place them where they need to go.
And ideally, it's,
this is like the front corner of the classroom,
it's where I can see the most screens possible.
So in a spot like this,
where I wouldn't have as good visibility
of the screen from up here,
I'm only gonna put one computer there instead of two.
That's what I'm gonna do now is bring in all the computers,
place them, and then wire them.
(gentle guitar music)
(moves into upbeat electronic music)
It is now three o'clock.
Stayed a bit later, look and feel terrible.
But every computer is plugged into power.
Almost every computer has Internet.
And it's starting to look and feel
a lot better in here.
It's just so much work.
What do you have to say about it?
- I love it.
I mean, seriously,
the difference.
- Here we go for day three.
Eight o'clock in the morning.
By the end of today, this should be
a fully functional lab
and I'm really excited about that.
Still have a few of these big network and power things
that I need to get set up,
so I'm gonna get that taken care of.
There was a pretty big issue with power management
because the way I arranged this,
this small group of only four computers
ended up with two power sources,
whereas this giant group of 15 computers
ended up with one,
and this group also ended up with no network access.
So I just had to run some cables under this mat
which then I taped down,
so it shouldn't be an issue or a safety problem.
But to do this, then I had to run network cables over here
so that these computers have network access
and then I also had to run power from here to here
so that way, all of these other computers
aren't going off of one power source.
I've always been a huge believer in, especially classrooms,
trying to do non-traditional arrangements
that are more effective for that subject matter.
Using different furniture,
different arrangements, different lighting,
because we're all so used these office-type environments
with fluorescent lighting and just rows of desks
and like a cubicle situation,
and that's just now how a lot of people
can function practically, and so
it's really important to me that when
students or anybody comes into my classroom
and sits down to do something that they feel
comfortable, productive and like they're in a space
where they can actually get something done.
(upbeat electronic music)
Three days and it's done!
Finally got every computer wired and set up.
I'm super excited about this because
once the school year starts,
I spend most of my time here in this classroom
and it's a really great environment.
And the fact that this area was not super effective
and now it is,
(sigh of relief)
it's a massive relief,
and it's been giving me nightmares all summer
and now it's done.
So I am really, really happy, really proud,
and now I actually can't wait for the first day of school
which is a very good way to feel.
So in the meantime,
let me know what you think down in the comments below
and if you haven't subscribed,
please make sure to do so.
And I will see you guys next time.
(sighs) I am so tired.
(driving pop-rock music)