disconnecting from external monitor

When I'm using my mbp at my house I plug it into: external monitor, usb that connects to my monitor and serves as a hub for my external hard drive, printer etc, and an audio cord that connects to my speakers. When I disconnect all I do is eject my hard drives and unplug the cords.

However, every time I disconnect and take my computer with me to class, my desktop screws up. Everything gets moved to the right and I can't see my MacHD icon or any of the files I have over there. Also, I can't click anything on the desktop at all. The problems persist until I restart.

Is there a way to avoid these problems when disconnecting? Should I shutdown before disconnect or is there another way?

Turn mirroring on before disconnecting maybe?

Fodge is correct. You have your display preference set for "extended desktop" rather than "mirror". Change it as suggested and you should be OK.

I use a Henge Dock with my MacBook Pro at work. Before I disconnect it, I put it to sleep. Don't have the errors or misaligned icons. When I used it before and simply unplugged, I would occasionally get an odd screen resolution.