Flexible seating

There’s so much in the teaching world about flexible seating - allowing choices and providing comfort.

The pictures are so cute, bright, happy, and fun!

For me, they cause stress - appearing pricey, overwhelming, and not doable. Besides not having the money, I may change rooms or schools each year. I don’t have a lot of space. How do I give a test when they are laying down or sharing a sofa? I also have a limited amount of energy and I put that into lesson planning and activities. Currently, I have 6-foot tables in a tiny room with wired computers that doesn’t allow any rearranging of the tables and only has room to walk around them.

My solution for flexible seating with regular desks has been to move the desks around - often and in many different patterns. Sometimes a circle or square. Sometimes in groups of four or six. My favorite is to put them in varying groups - some 2’s, 3’s, and 4’s.

AND ALWAYS have some individual desks by themselves.

I allow the students to rearrange them as they need. Some students pull six or seven together and some pull them apart. There are no assigned seats, so they can move around every day, but most students have a favorite spot.

I allow them to move the desks to the front or back of the room. I had one student who used my stool and a clipboard for most classes, while another stood in the back of the room using a file cabinet as the desk.

Currently, with the non-moving tables, I allow them to choose their own seats, move the chairs to either side of the tables and sit on the floor. There are few options in the current set-up.

Back to those individual desks. Individual desks (as well as the ability to move their own desk) allow my students to practice self-control and self-regulating. I can suggest or require them to move to a desk (or move the one they are in). Or they can choose a desk away from the others. And they do. Some prefer to sit alone, but others will move on a bad day or when they realize they are too loud. They desks are not punishment or timeout. They have no negative connotation. They are positive desks - to keep someone out of trouble, to keep someone from being rude, to give someone some space.

I had one student who always sat with a group, but one day he came in and picked an individual desk. As his friends came and started to pull desks near him, he said, “Don’t you dare. I picked this desk.” They all slid the desks back. He got his work done and the next day went back to his friends.

One of my talkative students moved his desk up to the board everyday of second semester. After explanations were given, he moved back to his group for the assignment.

This is my version of flexible seating. It doesn’t cost anything, but giving up a little bit of control. It gives them choices and allows them to practice self-control and responsibility.

But my students aren't like your's

I've thought it many times when reading others posts: But I don't have those kids.

True.  I have my kids and you have your's, but my 1st period and 3rd period aren't the same kids either.

When I write about my kids, I write about them the way I see them, the way I believe they can be.

I see them as learners with mostly good hearts, who want to be heard, be understood, be loved, do better, be smart, graduate, and make it on their own.  I also see them with challenging backgrounds, too many responsibilities,  and no breakfast.  Students who are frustrated and intimidated by books and words and schools.  Young adults who want to be respected, taught, acknowledged, heard.

Sometimes I write about their frustrations, their learning curves, their in-class challenges.

I rarely share that some are felons, gang members, drug dealers.

These are the same kids in the stories I share that are working, kind, empathetic.  This is how I see them.  And in return this is the behavior that I get.

Of course, there are exceptions.  The ones who keep their distance, try every last nerve, and refuse to learn at all.  And there are exceptions now and then with the others, but we usually talk it out and work it out without severe behaviors or consequences.

So, do I understand the struggle to teach the student

who has spent every night for the last two weeks at a different location?

who has a scary reputation that others are afraid of?

who has a felony charge involving a gun?

who was molested and still has nightmares?

who is afraid of her stepdad for multiple reasons?

who may actually be living on the streets?

Yes, I do.  I have them.  I teach them.  I care about them.

Sometimes you have to be the bad guy

I'm not talking about the bad guy because you gave a low grade or corrected behaviors.  I'm talking about letting them blame you as the bad guy.

Ashley did not like me from day one.  I had her last period and she was usually the first to arrive.  I greeted her daily with "Hey, how're you?" or "Hey, How's your day?" or something similar.  She rarely spoke to me at all, not even if asked to answer a question in class about the assignment.  Nothing!

It's the end of first semester.

The class was getting too loud and unproductive one afternoon. 

I told them. 

Then warned them. 

Then warned them of assigned seats. 

Then assigned seats for the rest of the period.

Ashley refused to move to the assigned seat. 

I explained she could move to the other seat or she could move her desk up against the wall facing the wall.  She opted for this choice.  We got her desk moved.

The class got it together, so the next day they would be able to seat where they wanted.

Ashley arrived first, as usual.

"Why am I not up against the wall?"

"Ya'll got it back together, so no assigned seats today....unless you want one."

"yeah"

I moved her desk just as others start to arrive and I tell them they don't have assigned seats.

Ashley's friends ask her to join them and she says she can't.

They ask why and she says she has an assigned seat.

Her friends ask what happen.

"You know how she is." 

So, they turn to me with promises that Ashley will behave.  They promise.  What did she do?

I respond, "It's between us."

---------

She went back to her seat and friends the following day.  And she spoke to me and greeted me and smiled when she saw me from then on.

I have no idea why she needed an assigned seat and I never asked.

Sometimes they don't know how to separate and take time for themselves.

Sometimes you can show them and teach them. 

Sometimes you have to be the bad guy.