The Dreaded Seating Plan

So far this year I have been blessed with a wonderful class.  It helped that they had great teachers in the past and are genuinely nice kids to begin with.  Knowing this before they entered my room, I decided at the beginning of the school year to make the conscious decision to throw out the rules of the seating plan.

As a Resource Teacher for 8 years, I used to preach to give kids one location and let them get comfortable.  Moving them too often forced them into difficult situations, that by the time they figured out, were being moved again. On the other hand, I visited classrooms that never changed their seating plan and it resulted in kids getting comfortable, but also caused them to lack energy.

As a result of my previous experience and my goal of creating a 21st century classroom, I decided to take a different approach; every 2 weeks I was going to move students to a new home base and during independent work time and reading, students would be able to sit where ever they could be productive.  It has worked beautifully!  I have only had to move 1 student and he needed to sit by himself for 4 days before the seating plan changed again.  I did have a couple students complain, but channeled my inner Debbie Silver and told them 'for now' this is the seating plan and it will change in 2 weeks.  After the first month I never heard another complaint.

Now I am venturing into the world of no seating plan.  Only rule I have is that your seat (home base) is the same for the next 2 weeks.  My first attempt at this did not go so well.  Students sat with their friends and were significantly less focused than before. So we went back to a seating plan. Tomorrow we will try again. I have spent the last couple weeks talking about being successful at school and recognizing positive student behaviour around attention and focus.  I have also reviewed with them what a good seat should be for you as an individual and reminded them there is always time to sit with your friends later. I am hoping to be surprised tomorrow, but have also prepared myself to deal with whatever comes up in the morning.

One thing I have learned so far is that students need room to make mistakes and I am hoping this leads to some personal growth for some of my students.  We shall see how it all plays out.

Feel free to share how you have been assigning or not assigning seats in your room.  I am interested to hear your thoughts.

Have a great day,

James