End of our 4th Week in 4th grade with no Seating Chart...Making our COMMUNITY

Since I have steeped myself in Maker Education, philosophy, and 21 Century learning, I came to the conclusion that I needed to change how I approach community building in my classroom and with that, I started looking into other seating and workspace choices for learning. In early August I started questioning how much of a student's day is dictated by the teacher's design vs. the student's and I started to question how much of the days' organization is for the student's benefit or my own. Last year my colleague, Debbie Leonard, tried an innovative approach to building community in her fifth grade class on the first day of school. Instead of each student's name card firmly affixed to a pre-existing desk in a teacher-designed space, she decided to pile up all of the desks and chairs and have the students gather to discuss what they need in their classroom to be the best learner. What do you need from your environment? What do you need from your teacher? What do you need from your classmates? Furthermore, how do you want to arrange our furniture to maximize learning? I was inspired by her approach, and frankly, a little intimidated. I have been a dyed-in-the-wool seating chart mistress of chart making for over two decades of my career, so it was a big leap for me to throw this part of my planning out.

So, the first day of school, August 18, I had all 32 desks piled on top of each other on one side of the classroom with a whole lot of open space and the Maker materials spread out in a consolidated area (finally!!). I have two of my own children's discarded bean bags, and my own Giam yoga ball, plus 25 institutional blue classroom chairs that stack. When I greeted the students, I explained that when they entered the classroom, they could choose to sit down on what they felt would be best for them. I said that we were starting a fantastic adventure together and that for the first time in their academic career -- and mine -- that we would literally build our classroom space together. Shortly, our custodian extraordinaire, Mr. Semeret, arrived with several tables ranging from four to six feet long. Two-by-two, students carried all but seven of the individual desks out of the room.

We have spent the last four weeks exploring this space together, learning to tidy up in two minutes - stack chairs, consolidate surfaces -- desks and tables - and collect all "lost" supplies. I have community supplies in a central location that students have access to -- and responsibility for -- at all times. These include pencils, sharpeners - hand-held and electric -, markers, paper, privacy screens. All of their personal books and folders are kept in a built-in cubby that is 11 inches wide and 8 inches tall. The room/furniture design is determined by the learning activity and students move the furniture around to fit their needs and the needs of the activity. For example, when we have literature discussions in Jr. Great Books, students sit in an oval so they may see everyone. When we are working on our self portraits, they are spread out on counters, tables, and desks. Versus when they are reading independently, they may be on a rug on the floor or laying down, or gently bobbing on a yoga ball. Mostly students have self-selected their learning partners and spaces. Now that I have completed some baseline assessments in reading, writing, and mat.hematics, and observed their individual productivity with the self-selected partners, I have designed different academic teams to suit a variety of activities

Initially, the classroom environment was a tremendous shock for some students and for me, getting used to having no set seating chart made it impossible for me to learn everyone's name in the first two days of school like I have done in each previous year. My solution? I had the students make and design name tags on the first day of school. They have worn these everyday! It has been especially helpful for visiting artists, guest teachers, and for new students to learn all of their classmates' names.

The issue for some students initially was that they didn't have a traditional desk to go to each and everyday with their stuff in it. It was reported in a faculty meeting, in fact, that there were even some fourth grade "refugees" who came to visit their former teacher's classrooms just to sit in a desk. I took this piece of information back to my students and I asked them to begin researching 21 century design classroom furniture. I also had students complete a survey about their learning space needs and wishes. We are in the process now of drafting individual letters to our School Board Members to persuade them to fund our 21 Century Classroom furniture overhaul. This project promises to be full of "need-to-know" engaged learning and making in the classroom.

Next up, we will design our dream homes and begin the International Cardboard Challenge.