Flexible Seating is Fantastic!

Hi!  My name is Robin Williams, and I am returning to the classroom as a full-time teacher for the first time in 8 years!  Last year, I taught 1st grade part time and the previous year, I was full-time with a charter school and worked from home and on-site with independent study high school students.  I was a stay at home mom for 6 years.  Prior to that, I taught in the Garden Grove Unified School District for 7 years and Alpine School District in Utah for 1 year.  Long story short, this is my 11th year of teaching, and I have the honor of teaching first grade in the Moreno Valley Unified School District!

My perspective on teaching has changed greatly in the past 8 years due to my charter school experience, being a stay-at-home mom, talking with my homeschool friends, and volunteering in my children's classrooms for 4 years.  I had a few special students in my part-time first grade classroom last year that couldn't sit still to save their life.  They stood by their desk, wandered around their desk, rocked in their chair, knelt on their chair, tipped over in their chair, and a great many other things while I was trying to instruct the class.  It drove me crazy that they couldn't just sit still in a regular chair for 6 hours a day like everyone else.  Then I discovered FLEXIBLE SEATING on Pinterest and Facebook and fell in LOVE with the idea!  Why force children who have extra exergy, ADHD, and other challenges, to sit in a hard plastic, uncomfortable chair for 6 hours a day?  If they could still listen, learn, and get their work done while they stood, knelt, and moved around a little, shouldn't that be acceptable as well?

When you walk into a Starbucks, you don't see everyone sitting at school style desks conversing, studying, working on their chromebooks, and enjoying their Frappuccinos.  Some are standing, some are sitting on cozy couches and chairs, leaning against a wall, sitting on stools, and some are sitting at traditional tables and chairs.  There are many professionals who use Starbucks as their favorite place to sit, study, relax, reflect, build connections with colleagues, and more and are very successful in their jobs.  When I worked for the charter school, Starbucks was one of my office meeting places.  I would meet my high school students each week and sit at a variety of seating arrangements to collect, grade, and evaluate their work and discuss their academic needs.  I thought it was pretty cool that they could get their work done in a non-traditional setting and still be successful in their academics.

When I first sat down with my new principal, one of the first questions I asked was, "Are you open to new ideas?  What do you think about flexible seating?"  Her response was, "What would that look like in your classroom?"  My immediate answer was, "AWESOME!"  I went on to explain my vision and share the photos I had found on Pinterest.  School started 3 days ago, and my answer is still, "My classroom looks AWESOME!"

This in my classroom set up after one day of work.  I had the custodians haul out about 8 double desks and at least 20 traditional classroom chairs.  There were no teacher desks available, so I used a student desk for my desk.  The classroom is pretty small, so I had to be creative with the furniture arrangement to make everything fit and not feel too crowded.

Many friends and colleagues are intrigued by the idea of flexible seating, but are hesitant to take the leap and try it in their own classroom.  Instead, they have asked me to share with them how it works in my classroom this year.  To streamline that process, I will share how flexible seating works in my first grade classroom on this Blog page and also be able to document this adventure in my teaching career!

• I made 6 crate chairs ($3.44 each from WalMart and $5 each for the cushions) 
• 6 yoga balls ($7 Amazon) plus a yoga ball for my teacher desk
• $5 cushions for the kneeling/sitting on the floor tables with no legs
• Camping chairs from my garage for the reading corner
• $13.99 colorful rugs for the library from Costco
• $107 big classroom ABC rug from Amazon
• $25 exercise bikes from Amazon for students to "roll and read" in the library
• 1 stool and I had the custodians raise two double desks to the highest height for standing room and put those against the wall to allow for more space (free!).
• I also ordered covers for all cushions so that they could be taken off and washed periodically.  They came on the slow boat from China and had not arrived when I first set up my classroom.  They were around $3 each.

The custodians at my school were VERY helpful with moving out extra furniture and chairs that I no longer needed, raising tables (standing ones), lowering tables (crate chairs), and taking off the legs of two tables.  I can have 25 students in my room and I planned it so there is physical table space for 33 students (not including my kidney table).  This allows for students to have more choices and room to spread out as needed, and if I ever have extra students rotating into my room, I am prepared!

 Flexible seating:

• Two double desks with space for 6 students to sit on yoga balls
• Two double desks lowered with space for 6 students to sit on crates
• Later I made 2 more crate chairs and put them in the library for additional seating.
• Two double desks raised and pushed to the wall for space for 4 students to stand and 1 stool for someone to sit at the high table
• 1 round and 1 rectangular table with the legs removed and 4 cushions per table so that 8 students can kneel or sit on the floor with the cushions
• 1 regular individual desk with a chair for a student who needs some alone time
• 3 double desks with 6 traditional classroom chairs for students who prefer to sit "old school style"
• 1 double desks in the back with the computer tables (tables and chairs for 6 kids at computers) with 2 traditional chairs
• I turned all desks backwards so that no one can access the inside storage.  All table areas are "community space" and no one has their "own desk" to fill with stuff.  This also eliminates the cleaning of desks and the inevitable lost papers stuffed in the back of their desks.
• The library rug area has 2 kid size camping chairs, 2 crate chairs, and 2 regular chairs for use with the 2 exercise bikes.
• There are two holders with lots of clipboards in them by the library in the back and the classroom rug in the front.  Students can also choose to sit or lay down (Yes! You might find students laying down in my classroom!) and work on clipboards in those areas. 
• I have a kidney shape table with 5 traditional chairs that I use for pulling kids and teaching them in small groups.  This table is NOT an option for them when they choose their seat.

I have assigned seating for each student on a letter on the big classroom rug.  Most of the main whole group instruction will be given at the rug.  Students then choose a place to work, grab their supply pencil box, and get to work.  They stay in their chosen seat for the duration of the activity.  They can choose a different place for the next activity.  I use class cards (playing cards with their name on it which I shuffle a lot to keep it random), or student behavior on the rug to dismiss students a few at a time to choose their spot to work.

I created this What's my number? poster to assign each student in my class a number.  Then I made a What's my letter? poster that assigns each student to a letter on the rug.  I have an extra poster to assign students who rotate to me for ELD time.

 In our district, we are not allowed to use butcher paper or fabric on the walls, as it is against their strict fire code.  I had to be creative to get color on my walls and in my classroom.

 I laminated a class set of bright yellow and blue pieces of construction paper and made a bulletin board on two of the walls to display student work.  Luckily I have a lot of flexibility of what I display as long as the standards are clearly posted for ELA and Math in kids friendly terms.  I added a border and my classroom has color!

 I saw adorable large sticker dots that can be used as dry erase boards on someone's Pinterest page.  I LOVED the idea, but couldn't afford to buy that many dots for all of the desks.  Instead, I cut out half circles, circles, and ovals out of construction paper and laminated them and taped them on the desks.  My goal was one "dot" per person.  I later had to laminate and cut more out to accomplish this goal at all tables.  My objective is to both brighten the room, and to be functional.  These "dots" will become one choice for fast finishers.  They can use the dry erase marker in their pencil box to practice writing this spelling and high frequency words and math facts on their dots.  They can also work as surfaces to place their math manipulatives and to keep their desk organized.

 I couldn't afford a $400 wooden cubby system for my room, so I saw an idea on Pinterest, went to my local Post Office, got 27 of the FedEx boxes that you can get for free then pay when you ship, and built my own cubbies.  I used colorful wrapping paper from the Dollar Tree to make it more appealing.  It isn't very sturdy, but it is functional for distributing papers and homework.

 I used more wrapping paper (fairy tale castles), to cover the sad looking side of my filing cabinet.

 On the first day of school, I very CLEARLY went over the flexible seating expectations as well as modeling with EVERY seat type, how to appropriately use each seat.  We also discussed when it was a better choice to choose a seat with a table surface (example, choose a seat with a table when we are cutting and pasting) and when it is fine to be on the rug with the clipboard.

 Birthday caterpillar!

 I didn't like how frumpy my old rumpled up table cloth looked, so I removed everything off my desk and covered it with contact paper.  So much cuter and less bulky!  Now I need a magical way to hide all of those cords...

This is me just before picking up my student on the first day of school!!!  Let the adventure begin!