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.