Flexible Seating Series Part 1


So you're interested in alternative seating?! If you're anything like me when I began I had a million ideas swirling around in my head (I'm a teacher so that pretty much comes with the territory) and I wanted to just jump in full force. 

Sometimes it's really hard for me to not just have an idea and implement it immediately. In some cases this has worked to my advantage, but other times it's crashed and burned.

When I decided to do flexible seating in my classroom I realized I needed some help from my principal to get some tables in my room instead of individual student desks. This turned out to be a blessing because 1. she LOVED the idea and 2. it forced me to really sit down and iron out some details.

I made ended up making two lists of guiding questions. The first list is more philosophical, it's the why even do this. The second list is far more practical, it's the how and the details. Both were extremely helpful in the planning process.



These are questions of
-What are the benefits to switching my classroom design?
-What are the drawbacks to switching my classroom design?
-Are there particular students that this will help?
-Are there particular students that this will hurt?
-Does this align with my teaching philosophy?
-Does this foster classroom community?
-Does this allow student choice, voice, and independence?

Of course there is no catch all solutions for classroom issues because you have 18+ (maybe closer to 25) young bodies with different needs, personalities, etc. in your classroom every day. By working through this list, I determined that the benefits greatly outweighed the drawbacks and that this would most likely create a positive change in my classroom. Most importantly, I saw this as a way to increase student choice, voice, and independence which is what drives our learning community.

Once I got the philosophical questions answers and I gave myself the "go ahead" I had a million other questions that needed to be answered. These are the practical questions that helped me answer "how in the heck am I going to smoothly change my entire classroom?!"


These questions include:
-How many seats will there be?
-What types of seats will there be?
-Where will students keep their supplies?
-How will students get their supplies?
-How will students pick their seats?
-How often will students pick their seats?
-Will students have a "home base" so to speak?
-What surfaces will students work on?
-What procedures will we get rid of?
-What procedures will need to be added?
-How will this change our beginning of the day and end of the day routines?
-Which seats need their own procedures?
-What mini lessons do we need to have?
-How will we take benchmark tests and classroom tests?
-How will students engage in accountable partner talk?
-Where will students sit for whole group lessons?
-A million more questions!

From my experience, the more of these questions you can answer upfront, the better! Even if it's just initial jottings before you take the plunge. Other questions including procedures may take a trial & error period and some class meetings and brainstorming to get right. 

In the end, I have found that the most essential things you need to make rolling out alternative seating a success are:



(as with all classroom success, right?).

I will be rolling out many more tips & tricks to alternative seating so be sure to subscribe, pin, check back, etc.





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