The Traveling teacher...
...also known as the "shopping cart teacher".
Many teachers, especially new teachers and "specialty" teachers, don't have their own classrooms. Instead, they travel from room to room. This can be quite a challenge. Here are some things you can do to minimize the stress and maximize the learning time:
"Hire" a student. If your school allows it, have a trusted student leave your classroom one minute before the bell rings to end class, lugging your materials to the next classroom. When the bell does ring, that student is standing outside the door of your new classroom, bringing the materials in and setting them up. The student can earn "extra credit" of your choosing. If it's not allowable or doable to have a student leave your classroom early, then have that student escort you to the next class, helping you lug your materials.
In addition, you can have a student from your next classroom stay after and set things up between classes before you arrive.
Use transparencies, PowerPoint, or butcher paper to pre-write your board information. Instead of spending the time between classes writing a warm-up activity on the board, for example, write the warm-up the night before on a transparency. When you arrive at your new classroom, turn the overhead on, and you're good to go. Or, write on butcher paper the night before. Your "hired" student can take it from one class to the next and post it on the board.
Secure wall space for your posters and for student work. Secure file cabinet space and/or shelf space for your materials.
Both of these can be problematic, in that the teacher in the room is not likely to want to yield any wall or cabinet space. However, if you are teaching one class per day in another teacher's room, for example, and she is teaching five classes, then you should be entitled to one-sixth of the space. Because most traveling teachers are new and therefore non-tenured, most traveling teachers never speak up about the need for space. Most of the time, the teacher whose room it is will happily yield a little wall and cabinet space. Sometimes, however, the teacher is not so willing to yield. If this is the case, then consider having your mentor teacher or department head or administrator go to bat for you. As a mentor, I have requested wall and file space in the room on behalf of the new teacher, and let the teacher know up front that it was my request, as opposed to that of the new teacher. In this way, I was the one who received any negativity that came up, thus freeing up my mentee to work in harmony with that teacher.
Once you have cabinet space, photocopy class sets of handouts that you may need, and place them in each of your classrooms. For example, there's seven minutes left in class, and the students are finishing an activity. If only you had that poem or worksheet or math handout, you could keep them on task for the rest of the period. Because you don't want to have to lug a class set (or series of class sets) around with you all the time, place your handouts in each classroom, and store them in a file cabinet or drawer in advance, so that you can pull them out on a moment's notice.
Use wall space to post student work, announcements, personal touches about yourself, or anything else you might do if the room were actually yours.
Change the seating arrangement. If you would prefer a different seating arrangement than what exists in the classroom, change it. For example, if the room is set up with desks in groups of four, and you would prefer rows, simply have your students change the seating arrangement at the start of class, and then move things back at the end of class. The amount of time spent doing this can be minimized by using visuals, such as an overhead view of the room, to get the students to set the room up as you like it. By practicing the procedure, the students will able to move desks efficiently. The stress saved by teaching in an environment that you prefer is always worth the hassle of moving desks.