HOORAY! Thanks to DonorsChoose and some generous parent donations, we now have more Chromebooks coming our way. This year, I started with 5 Macs and 5 Chromebooks. We recently fundraised for 5 Chromebooks while Google was offering to match donations dollar for dollar on DonorsChoose. Then I couldn't resist posting another project to see if we could get 5 more Chromebooks - and we did! That gives us a total of 20 laptops!!!
So having this many laptops opens up tons of possibilities for projects, blogging, researching, and more. We are so fortunate to have access to all of this at our fingertips. However, it also leads to a small dilemma: How are we going to store and charge these!? After some research, I decided to buy a paper organizer so each laptop can live in its own little cubby. When choosing a storage solution, I had three criteria. First, it had to have a small footprint. I simply do not have a lot of space in my room to store 20 laptops! Second, the laptops needed to be easily accessible to students. Third, I wanted to be able to adapt the storage solution to be able to keep the laptops charged (more on that later).
So having this many laptops opens up tons of possibilities for projects, blogging, researching, and more. We are so fortunate to have access to all of this at our fingertips. However, it also leads to a small dilemma: How are we going to store and charge these!? After some research, I decided to buy a paper organizer so each laptop can live in its own little cubby. When choosing a storage solution, I had three criteria. First, it had to have a small footprint. I simply do not have a lot of space in my room to store 20 laptops! Second, the laptops needed to be easily accessible to students. Third, I wanted to be able to adapt the storage solution to be able to keep the laptops charged (more on that later).
I bought this organizer on Amazon for about $60 (hallelujah Prime shipping!) and assembled it in my apartment. As you can see, this only has 12 compartments. Although this is a decently affordable option compared to other cubbies I have seen, I didn't want to buy two of them in case I wasn't in love - you might say I have commitment issues, but anyone who's ever purchased anything for their classroom can relate! Ideally I need 24 laptops to be stored in this thing once my dreams of being a 1:1 classroom are realized.
My original idea was to turn the organizer sideways and store the laptops vertically, with two in each compartment. I quickly figured out that this won't be possible since these corrugated fiberboard shelves are only resting on top of pegs, which means they will fall over if I rotate the shelf. Oh well! Luckily I'm a teacher, so I'm no stranger to being flexible and moving on to Plan B which is... Keeping the shelves just the way they are, and stacking two laptops in each cubby. Creative, I know. I decided to test it out with one of our Macs from school, which you can see below.
My original idea was to turn the organizer sideways and store the laptops vertically, with two in each compartment. I quickly figured out that this won't be possible since these corrugated fiberboard shelves are only resting on top of pegs, which means they will fall over if I rotate the shelf. Oh well! Luckily I'm a teacher, so I'm no stranger to being flexible and moving on to Plan B which is... Keeping the shelves just the way they are, and stacking two laptops in each cubby. Creative, I know. I decided to test it out with one of our Macs from school, which you can see below.
You can imagine my disappointment when I slipped that Macbook in only to find that it sticks out about a half inch! Honestly, I can live with that, but a little piece of me is sad and ashamed that I didn't think this through to the smallest detail. When ordering this, I only thought about Chromebook dimensions (11.4"W, 8.21"D, 0.69"H) which should fit nicely. According to Amazon, the cubby dimensions are 11.5"D, 9"W, and 2 3/8" H. So if you're shopping around for some laptop storage, I hope you can learn from me!
So what's next? I still need to drill holes in the back so I can snake a charger through to each cubby. I'll wrap the edge of the charger in velcro and glue a small strip of velcro just inside each cubby. That way the charger will be easily within reach and won't fall to the back of the cubby. Plus, I can hide the bulk of the cords behind the shelves! Students will be in charge of plugging in their laptops each time they return it to the cubby. Hopefully I will report back with positive results in my next post!
If you have any ideas for classroom tech, laptop storage, or charging ideas, feel free to comment below! Maybe in the future, we will have wireless charging built into each shelf... I can dream, right?
So what's next? I still need to drill holes in the back so I can snake a charger through to each cubby. I'll wrap the edge of the charger in velcro and glue a small strip of velcro just inside each cubby. That way the charger will be easily within reach and won't fall to the back of the cubby. Plus, I can hide the bulk of the cords behind the shelves! Students will be in charge of plugging in their laptops each time they return it to the cubby. Hopefully I will report back with positive results in my next post!
If you have any ideas for classroom tech, laptop storage, or charging ideas, feel free to comment below! Maybe in the future, we will have wireless charging built into each shelf... I can dream, right?