My students need three Wobble Chairs to allow for movement during class time.
My students need pencil fidgets to allow for a physical activity during seat time.
We call our classroom Wellmanland, and the two most important traits of Wellmanland are acceptance and character building. While the subject is English, the content is all centered around being the best human you can be. Some students need preferential seating to channel physical energy.
Our school is in a low-income rural area, and our free-reduced lunch population is 95%.
Ethnic make-up is Hispanic, Hmong, East Indian, Pakistani, white and African-American. We serve a large percentage of ESL students, a disproportionately large number of special education students, and a community struggling with poverty, drug addiction, gangs and generational poverty.
The students are testaments to resiliency. Our attendance is excellent, and many of the above mentioned groups excel and take on leadership roles in the school.
My Project
I hope that the wobble chairs will work for my students with attention issues. They are usually in constant motion during class, and the traditional chairs seem to be stifling for them. Other teachers are recommended these stools to allow students to be in "motion" while not causing a safety concern to themselves or others. I believe that this will mesh well with our classroom environment of acceptance, and that the other students will see the benefit in having these chairs available.
Students want to know that they are understood and valued.
I think they will feel that their needs are being addressed in a positive way by the teacher. My goal is that the students who use the stools will have increased ability to focus on subject matter because the nervous and kinetic energy is being absorbed and channeled in non-obtrusive movement.
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