Ms. Isaacs’ Classroom Edit display name

About my class

In the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program (IB PYP) at our school, students are encouraged to develop their social-emotional skills as well as grow academically. To achieve this in my classroom, my students are engaged in play-based learning and given choices in the ways they learn. One of these choices is the freedom to choose where they would like to sit in the classroom. Flexible seating is a relatively novel concept in education but is steadily gaining ground as research has indicated multiple benefits for students' learning and development. The use of stability balls, for example, has been shown to be an effective intervention to improve the attention and focus of students with attention and hyperactivity concerns (Alicia L. Fedewa, Heather E. Erwin; Stability Balls and Students With Attention and Hyperactivity Concerns: Implications for On-Task and In-Seat Behavior. Am J Occup Ther 2011;65(4):393-399. doi: 10.5014/ajot.2011.000554.) When given choice of seating in the classroom, students learn self-management and can more easily collaborate than in a typical teacher-centered classroom with rows of desks. A wide assessment has shown that comfortable seating in the classroom is positively correlated with student success and achievement. This is one of my major goals as an educator! (Peter Barrett, Fay Davies, Yufan Zhang, Lucinda Barrett, The impact of classroom design on pupils' learning: Final results of a holistic, multi-level analysis, Building and Environment, Volume 89, 2015, Pages 118-133, ISSN 0360-1323, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.02.013.) Flexible seating in our classroom will increase students' collaborative and exploratory skills which will lend to increased learning and better preparedness for learning, working, and living in our rapidly evolving and hyper-connected world. We appreciate your consideration of our students' needs and your desire to help change the way we learn.