Student Contributor: A. Goo
The classroom environment is very important when taking into account how students are learning and what you are wanting when planning the lay out and materials in your room. Students can feel more attentive when learning and have a sense of enjoyment in being able to feel engaged and excited to be in the class community.
There are various forms of ways to have flexible seating within your classroom. This could be through different learning stations with various seating arrangements such as bean bags or cushions on the floor of a read aloud area or having student seating at their desks consist of round ball seats, stools and other comfortable classroom seating. When providing students with these arrangements it is important to share with the class rules for the seating and expectations of how we appropriately sit in each of the different seats. If different table groups have different seating it can be helpful to rotate the different seats every week to practice sharing and taking turns. Students will gain a role of responsibility to sit safely in their seats and it may take some reminders to revisit how we sit in our different seating which is helpful especially for younger age groups.
This classroom management tool actively can contribute to the preventative phase. The tool is preventative because it can help to keep students engaged and avoid as much distraction by addressing the student's environment. When students have the resources to be on task not only are they supported in their learning but they have the tools necessary to focus on the activity and feel excited and engaged to be at school.
More Information –
Tool Source: https://www.edutopia.org/article/reflections-shifting-flexible-classroom
