Last summer I started searching for information and research on flexible seating. I had heard of this teaching style, but wanted to know more! In my searching I came across an article authored by Kayla Delzer on the topic of Flexible Seating on Edutopia, https://www.edutopia.org/blog/flexible-seating-student-centered-classroom-kayla-delzer, where she wrote: “I was working on my TEDx presentation at my local Starbucks and, looking around, I realized that everyone seemed to be happy, engaged in their work, and relaxed. Some people chose the traditional chairs and tables while I opted for a big, comfy chair with my MacBook on my lap. The quiet music, perfect lighting, and overall aesthetics of the coffee shop were favorable for a variety of learners. And if I wanted to switch up my seat during my stay, I was free to do just that. That's when I decided that our classroom in 2015-2016 was going to look radically different than anything I'd ever done before.” I had been going back and forth on my thinking about transitioning my teaching style to flexible seating, but reading this statement made it very clear that this was the type of environment I wanted to offer my 5th grade students. What she wrote jived with my teaching mantra. I have always wanted my students to be engaged, to collaborate with one another and to create an environment within my four walls where we were a community of learners and everyone could do their best learning. Flexible seating was something that boosted what I was already doing in my classroom. Flexible seating can take on many forms. Some teachers keep the desks, but cluster them in groups. They then change out the regular seats with seating options that cater to each learner in their classroom. I have also seen teachers keep desks and chairs for whole group instruction and then allow students to move to the various flex seating options, while they are doing group or independent work. I am fortunate to have a larger size classroom and was looking to move totally away from traditional desks and chairs and bring in a couch, stools, stability balls, low tables, standing desks and pillows to sit on the floor with. I wanted to give my students the choice as to where they wanted to do their best learning at all times throughout our day. The only downfall to me jump starting this transition, was that I did not have the seating options that I wanted to make it work. I researched and looked at various designs that other teachers, who had successes with flexible seating, offered to their students. I decided to create a Donor’s Choose project looking to obtain various seating styles to begin flexible seating with my students. I had created Donor’s Choose projects before and did not have much success, so I was not getting my hopes up for this specific project. When I created the project online, I thought it was a great time to start discussing what flexible seating was and this project with my students and their parents. I started sending emails, putting up Facebook/ Twitter/ Instagram posts asking for donations or for people to share our project. I also started asking for items that people didn’t use anymore like: stools, tables, pillows, stability balls, etc. My students were so excited to transition to this new style of learning and asked me every day if our project was close to being funded. My students knew that with this new type of learning, there would be a lot more responsibility. The idea behind flexible seating is to allow students to have a choice in the type of space they do their learning. Like some adults, not all students learn their best sitting in a hard chair at their desk all day long. I wanted to give my students the opportunity to learn in the best way possible. This was not only a big transition for my students, but it was also a huge transition for myself as a teacher with my teaching style. I wanted my students to become even more engaged and to have more collaborative opportunities throughout the day. I also wanted my students to implement making correct choices with this new opportunity. Now students would be able to sit by whoever they wanted to; so students would need to learn that sitting by your best friend is not always the best choice for your learning. In the real world we are allowed to make our own choices as to how we complete our work (standing, sitting, near others, etc), and I wanted to start teaching my students this responsibility. It was a whirlwind of events! I went to bed with only two donations on our flexible seating project page and no items donated to the class through my asking for unused things around student homes. The next morning I woke up to an email from Donor’s Choose, stating that my project was fully funded! Fully funded after being on the site for two months with very little activity. I was floored! A company by the name of Ripple, based out of San Francisco, donated a large sum of money, so that every teacher’s project on the website would be fully funded. I was in tears… tears of excitement for what I was now capable of doing for my students and tears of excitement for all the teachers who had their projects funded! Ripple blessed so many students with amazing opportunities and materials (like computers, books, seating options, etc.) I wanted to share the amazing news with my students, but wanted to do it in a fun way. Last school year we utilized the tech tool Flipgrid on an almost daily basis. I normally posted questions or problems and had the students give a quick response back to me with their answer. I went into school the morning I found out the great news and designed a Flipgrid activity for my students. They had to discuss in their response: what they were most looking forward to if our Donor’s Choose Project was fully funded and what they were excited about if we could implement flexible seating into our classroom. At the end of my activity post on Flipgrid, I wrote “Because guess what…. Our entire Donor’s Choose Project was fully funded!!” Here is the class reaction to finding out our project was funded: Stay tuned for my next post as to what our class received and how it went last school year!
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