Epic Failures and Great Adventures

I have to admit that with flexible seating it was a challenge to keep myself and my students organized.  We started with placing shelving units at the ends of tables and students each had a container for their supplies as well as a cubby with pencil boxes.

Now we have common supplies for everything else such as pencils, rulers, dry erase markers, etc. Those are located in the middle of tables and refills are in clear storage boxes in the cabinets.  This eliminates many arguments over ownership of supplies (Jimmy has my pencil!  I can tell because of the teeth marks on it!).  I request that only plain pencils and blue pens are brought in.  All pencils, pens, erasers, scissors, glue, paper and colored pencils go into the common supplies.  If a student brings in a fancy pencil or pen I kindly ask them to take that special item home to use.  I want all our pens, pencils, and erasers to look the same and NOT be fancy.  I label everything so items are easily found and returned to the right spot!

I have students store their items in plastic totes or/and book tubs. For reading they use book tubs, writing they have long, narrow, clear plastic boxes and for math they have plastic boxes. At my old school they were stored on a shelf located in the hallway. At my new school they will be stored on shelves and in cabinets.  I also have clipboards for each student to hang work that they are proud of and would like to share.  We also put QR codes on them to share our blogs and digital work.  In the back of the room are mailboxes to keep items that will go home.  Writing boxes are stored in the back cabinets.

I do not have a traditional teacher desk.  This year my husband and I built a standing desk that is adjustable from countertop.  This will be where I meet with students to confer.  I keep my materials on hanging baskets attached to the wall and in a cabinet labeled, “Teacher Only”.    I also have an area that students gather as a class when we have a mini lesson, share out, and PBIS lessons.  Students are free to work there individually or in small groups as well.  This area has 4 couches and a rug.

I  created a recording booth from an old puppet show display.  This is where students can go if they need to record themselves in a more private setting or even just to work.  There is a small table and stool inside.

There is a green screen wall for students to use.  We have 1:1 iPads and use the app, Green Screen, by Do Ink.  I had a green screen cloth that I hung up but the painted wall is much more user friendly!

I have an area outside my classroom to display what I am reading and writing about.  We call it, “What’s on my nightstand”.  Many of these are great ideas from Kristin Ziemke!

The book shelves and cabinet in my room are magnetic as well as the whiteboard and these are handy to hang items up and use for students to plan their day or projects.  All tables in my room are painted with whiteboard paint for students to plan, work out problems and collaborate.  I try to make every available space one that students can use.

The biggest difference I noticed when going from a traditional classroom with student desks to flexible seating was the ownership and atmosphere in the room.  I have less behavior problems, students are more organized and we take pride in what we have created.  I feel good when I walk into my room!

 

I recently was posting in the awesome Innovative Teaching Academy I am currently involved in about the learning spaces I work in.  My experience with my classroom transformation has been going on for about 4 years.  It all began when I got tired of telling students to sit on their pockets so they wouldn’t fall back and hit their heads.  I started asking them questions about how we could solve this problem.  I started watching their reactions as I began to bring in items like bean bags and rugs.  Guess what?  When given the choice as to where to sit not one of my students ever chose to sit at their desk rather than a bean bag.  More often than not, they would fight over who got to sit in the bean bags!  This will be a series of posts so stay tuned for more!

Student voice is so important to the whole process. My classroom changes every year because my students decide what works best for them.  One of the first questions I ask my students when they start the school year is, “When you read, write or create something where do you work best? Where are you the most comfortable? Where do you go to focus and concentrate? Where do you go to collaborate? We have many discussions about this and share stories. Let’s face it, right now I am working on my couch with my laptop on my lap, the T.V. in the background and the boys playing a game downstairs. But I share stories of how sometimes I really need the T.V. off and to be alone in my room to really concentrate on what I am reading. These discussions lead us to designing our classroom. My room is never the same each year though I do have the couches (which came into play 2 years ago when I only had one couch and the kids convinced me we really needed 4), the tables that ended up being painted with whiteboard paint and of course the bearded dragon we wrote a grant for a year ago. It changes when we decide that we need to organize materials better or have different work spaces. I am lucky to have a principal that loves change as much as I do!

When other teachers make comments about how students will ruin furniture that isn’t completely some sort of plastic that can be wiped clean and don’t I worry about lice, I share how my students have ownership over their classroom, that they get upset if visitors come into our room and leave any sort of mess! Sure I worry about lice, but no more than I did the past 16 years before I had flexible seating. Teachers ask, what about where all their stuff will go if you do not have desks? I do not have a teacher desk either. The students and I talk about the best ways to organize our materials and most of them are community supplies that belong to everyone rather than each student having their own pencil box full of stuff. I wish I had taken photos of the past 4 years of this transformation because it certainly did not happen in one year. I went from some student desks mixed with round tables to no student desks and rectangle tables to no rectangles tables but round tables mixed with some bean bags and coffee tables to only a couple of tables mixed with chairs, a couch and coffee tables to what I have now.

I was the first to start in our small elementary school. As of last school year not one teacher had student desks in her room. I am making a move to the larger elementary building in our district to be a part of our Personalized Learning pilot group (we have 3 elementary buildings). As I was setting up my new classroom I was reminded of the days when students, staff, and parents would stop by and say things like, “Is this a new teacher’s lounge? Where are the desks?” And guess what? A few staff members have asked questions about flexible seating and where did I get mine. They are now shopping, bringing in their treasures to show me, full of excitement….