Tales of a Fourth Grade Teacher: Let's get flexible!

I will preface this whole post with saying, this is still a work in progress. I only decided in January after doing some reading over winter break, and drooling over some flexible classrooms online, that I decided I SO badly wanted to make the switch.

I already had my kids sitting wherever they wanted during independent work time. Four years ago I adopted the Daily5 model and teaching and modeling how to find "good choice spots" is part of that workshop model. This kind of classroom requires more time in the beginning of the year but once the expectations are established so much less time is spent on behavior management for the remainder of the year. I thought to myself, I am SO close already, let's make it happen. I focused on small steps...

First... We sat down as a class and I shared with them my research. I told them exactly why this works for kids and asked them what they thought. We then created a pros and cons list to going desk-less. I think THEY were more skeptical than I was haha "What about specials?" "Where will all our stuff go?" "We might be louder" I told them we were going to do an experiment and that I had already started. I told them that I kept tally marks of where people were choosing to sit through out our day and that they might be surprised to hear that on average only 6-8 students out of 23 were choosing to use desks for independent work. They were so shocked! We all decided that we had a lot of furniture in here that we were apparently not even using!

Our next step...I had them move out of assigned desks. We didn't take anything away or add anything. We just got used to the idea of having complete freedom of choice to where we worked. This helped them get used to taking their learning into their own hands. "Yes, it is tempting to sit next to your friend BUT is that really the best place to work if you want to do your best?" They also understood that I always have the final say, so if they abuse this right it will be taken away from them. This has yet to be an issue.

After a week or two... I closed two of the desk groups, about 10 desks. The experiment was to see if we could survive on less seating and whether or not we liked it. The change didn't even phase us. For students that like sitting in a chair there were enough desks remaining and for the others they still had the chance to sit at the floor or around the room where they prefer.

After another week of this arrangement we sat down and had another discussion. Now we knew what it might look like and feel like. We decided unanimously that this is something that we all felt comfortable with. They knew that although the desks would be gone that there would be a few tables in their place that would be available to those who prefer sitting there.

So we did it...over February vacation I met my principal, custodian, and secretary and they all helped me swap my furniture. I can't even describe how much better the space feels. It is something you would have to experience yourself. All of the new furniture was found in our school storage. The ONLY purchase I made was for a few memory foam bathmats.... I still have some hopes and dreams for next year but for now we have plenty of options. If this is something you are considering, don't wait. I did this all in an afternoon and spent the $50 on bathmats. To be honest you could probably do this for no dollars at all. Start small... just experiment with freedom of choice.