[dramacentral]

I have a colleague who shares my room and "helps" me from time to time by "cleaning" out my counter spaces. Never mind that this is in MY part of the room (i.e. behind my desk) not affecting her in any way, and my things are arranged in the way that I like them. She'll pile things up someplace so that I can "go through them" - which generally means that I have to put them all back the way they were organized before. She also interrupts what I'm doing (often when I'm busy and haven't had any break time) to ask me if I still need certain items or if she can throw them away.

I find this behavior irritating. It creates more work for me. I have a very busy schedule this year, and the reason that I have so many materials out is that SHE gets to use the classroom whenever she needs it, so I need to grab my stuff and run upstairs to teach many of my classes. She can stroll over to the cabinets and pulling things out whenever she needs them. I do not have this luxury.

There are 3 of us sharing one space and I am already sandwiched in the back. We don't have room for any more shelving or cabinet space, so we just have to use the room we have. I don't tell her what materials to use or how to teach her classes, or where to put her things, so I want the same courtesy from her!

[read&see]

What she is doing is plain rude. Those are your materials that have nothing to do with her. I have an assistant and she never moves anything or make re-arrangement etc. without either asking first or waiting for me to ask for help.
Can you re-arrange her things? Maybe then she would get annoyed and see how you feel.

I share a room with 1 1/4 people. One is a full time spanish teacher and the other is a spanish teacher that comes in once a week.
I have the majority of the classroom because I have 15 students from 11:30 unitl dismissal.
She is out of the room the majority of the day because she goes to classrooms.
If I wasn't vigilant about putting things on her desk she would spread all over the room. I try to keep my materials organized and in their place. BUT I will not allow her to take over.

I do not touch her stuff except to place it in her area-her desk- then she can put it where ever.

I also have the issue of her wanting to chit chat when i am working with students! I cut her off. I try not to say anything to her at all. Yes i am rude but she is the type that if you give a millimeter she will take 50 kilometers. And I do not need her unsolicited advice.

I hope you can get the message out to her. Can you get some kind of containers or boxes and put you name on them in large letters? Can you post a sign: Please do not touch! or as we tell children: Keep your hands to yourself.

Find some stories where someone has drawn a line to keep someone out. There is a story by Rosemary Wells about the bunny named Max. He and his sister make a cake for their grandmother. She tries to keep him out of the kitchen by drawing a line across the floor and posting a picture of him with the No sign, red circle and line across.

So rude.

[dizzydolphin]

I know that I have a hard time confronting a problem with an adult, but have you told her how you feel? She is probably bothered by her impression of disorder. Some people actually think they are helping someone when they straighten things up. I share a space too when a para comes in to teach a group each day for 30 minutes at a table that I also use when she isn't in the room. I have to grab the materials that I was using and move them when she comes in. I use a pretty basket to put them in and then I put them away at the end of the day when I'm getting out the next day's supplies. You might want to do what I call a "clutter check". I tend to get used to my room and not notice when it is getting full of stuff. I walk into the room and look around as if I was a visitor. YIKES! This week was one of those weeks. I was so busy that I kept piling and piling until all of my spaces are filled. I'm headed back today to do my own straightening.

[Ima Teacher]

Sharing a room would drive me nuts. Fortunately, anytime I ever have a collaborating teacher he/she has a resource room somewhere else in the building.

For my first four years I was a "floating" teacher, using different rooms each class period while a teacher was on planning. I hated not having space that was mine, and it bugged me when I had to work in rooms that were messy.