I can remember when I student taught, and my prestudent teaching mentor had a comfortable chair in the room. All the kids loved it and constantly wanted to sit in it. I thought it was pretty cool. Flash forward to my time in Rochester. I shared a room with another wonderful teacher, who also had a comfortable chair. I asked her about it and she told me it was her "bad day chair". If you were having a bad day, sit in the chair, enjoy a little. But you couldn't take it every day.
So last year, I had my own classroom, after sharing for quite a few years. I decided to get a few comfy chairs of my own, and they were a hit! Though sometimes a little too much. Students would fight over them, or race to get to them, etc. Near the end of the year I had to put two of the three away because it was just causing too many issues.
Over the summer I began to think more about it, and do more research online into what other teachers and classrooms are doing. And this is when I discovered what has completely transformed my classroom this year.
Flexible Seating.
The many hashtags out there, #flexibleseating #desklesstribe #StarbucksMyRoom and so many others. Day in and day out I would stalk Twitter to see new pictures that were being put up about it. I wanted to see what others were doing and start to plan for my own room.
I hunted garage sales and found butterfly chairs, a round table with wheely chairs (big thanks to my mom for that find!), I got carpet remnants from a fellow teacher in Rochester, and also spent some of my own money on a few new chairs. I brought in a double papasan chair that I've had since I was a kid, and an old Ikea coffee table that had just been taking up room in our basement.My classroom was starting to come together.
I also turned in DonorsChoose.org. What a wonderful website! I was able to find more items through their partner websites and listed my donation page. During the first week back to school, I shared it with the parents of my students through my welcome newsletter. And wow! Did they ever come through for me! DonorsChoose was matching every donation up to $50, so between that, and my super generous parents, I was fully funded within 24 hours of pushing send on the email. AMAZING!
And because the majority of the materials I ordered came from Amazon, the boxes showed up almost immediately! I would come back from lunch and find a mountain of boxes stacked in my room.So we started setting stuff up. From DonorsChoose I received some Big Joe bean bag seats, two high top tables with bar stools, and a bunch of oval disc chairs and bean bag filled ottomans. The kids are so creative with the uses of all of the items. I love to see where they choose that day to get comfortable.
When the year started, my classroom had 32 desks. Now I only have 12, and those are rarely ever all filled. Some students prefer them, so I didn't want to get rid of them completely. The rest use clipboards, or smaller tables I have. The Ikea coffee table on the ground has been pretty popular, especially when they use the Big Joe bean bag seat next to it.
I was worried that this wouldn't work as well for high school kids because they are bigger and just take up more space. The majority of tweets and blogs I saw involved elementary school kids who can get comfortable in almost any space. But my freshman have embraced it and found spots that they are comfortable!I've had staff walk in and literally seen their jaw drop.
The struggles that I've had to overcome was dealing with where to put the desks. First I checked with administration about avoiding my room when it comes time for the state testing, but unfortunately we are limited on space, so that was not an option.
So then I needed to figure out what I could do with my desks so they would be easily accessible for the days of testing. I would need to reassemble my room for those days with around 30 desks for testing purposes. I wasn't worried about my own personal tests, because I typically test on the computers in the lab. But they could just as easily use clipboards in the classroom as well.
I have loved seeing how quickly my students embraced the changes. But what I also loved was seeing all the parents take a seat during the Back to School night we had last Thursday. My favorite was seeing a mom sprawled out on the bean bag chair, feet propped up on an ottoman! Awesome!The parents have been so supportive. I had so many approach me and tell me how happy they are that I am trying something different. Or how they had already heard about my room from their kids after the first few days.
My goals... give my students a learning environment that is comfortable, encourages community, encourages collaboration, and somewhere that they look forward to entering.
We are two weeks in. I haven't given my students a seating chart. I've seen them engaged in the lessons and conversations. I've seen them try out new seating areas on a daily basis.
I haven't had one student fall asleep. I've only had to speak to one class about making sure they are doing work while in the classroom, that it's not just a hangout place.
So two weeks in, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that we will continue to have a successful years. I'm hopeful the furniture won't break and will make it through the year in decent shape. I'm hopeful the custodians don't hate me too much for my carpet remnants and harder to navigate classroom. I'm hopeful that moving the desks back to the classroom won't be too difficult come testing time.Check out some of my pictures. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @mrscaralis and let me know if you have any questions about this experiment in flexible seating.
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