Most classrooms don’t consist of antique roller skates dangling from the ceiling or African safari photographs; most are bare white walls. For social studies teacher David Platt, unique items plastered around the entire room is perfectly normal.

Students look to distract themselves in any way shape or form while sitting in class but for senior Austin Abbott, Platt’s psychology class last semester was a problem rather than a distraction.

“If I was bored I would look around the room,” Abbott said. “I’d ask him about different trips like, ‘What was this trip from?’ or ‘Who went on this trip?’ — stuff like that.”

For some students and teachers, Platt’s room seems chaotic and disorganized with all of the miscellaneous items, but there’s reasoning behind the madness.

“Memories,” Platt simply stated. “I’ve been lucky enough to be in this room for a long time. I think I’ve been teaching in this room since 1998 or 1999, so [there are] just lots of things that trigger old memories.”

Although chaotic through a student perspective, Abbott believes Platt’s room is the way it is because that’s simply the way he organizes things. While Platt believes it’s warm and welcoming, Abbot thinks it can be a little overwhelming.

“At first I was claustrophobic in his room,” Abbott said. “There was so much going on. His window shades are always down so you can’t see out. If the door was closed in his room, I’d freak out. It would always have to be open.”

Besides the memories, Platt admits to keeping the paraphernalia because of the relationships with students he has developed from a lot of the items.

Not only does he keep memories taped to the walls, but at one point in his teaching career, he had tried to turn his room into a “History museum” because of his department.

Although his classroom can seem crazy, Platt doesn’t think his home atmosphere is the same as his classrooms.

“My house is pretty relaxed, laid back, and warm in greeting,” Platt said. “It’s maybe a little more tidy.”

Despite the craziness, Abbott believes that the brief images students see of Platt’s room as they walk down the hall are “teasers” inviting them to Platt’s class. These quick glimpses are what students have to look forward to in the future.

“I see a lot of younger people who don’t have his class [and] I hear people in the hallways like ‘I want to take his class because his classroom looks really cool,’ ” Abbot said.