My students love to be fed so I frequently "bribe" them with home-baked goodies. Once their work is done, they will even ditch the computer games for a llama puzzle or a spirited game of "Apples to Apples". They love to sprawl out on the floor with a book and will sometimes fight for the two coveted "table spots".
My students are industrious, but also VERY social.
I know they appreciate the environment of creativity and open discussion of ideas I foster in my classroom and I want to give them a classroom that reflects their personalities and fosters their creativity and social natures.
I teach all high school grade levels, from freshmen English to AP Language and Dual Credit Communication classes.
My Project
Good things happen around tables. Think about it; eating, doing puzzles, playing games and collaborating all typically happen around tables. In my classroom, however, I have desks. I have tried to emulate tables but arranging then into "pods" of 3-4 desks, but it's not the same. This year I added a table on which I always have a puzzle available for students to work on, but then if they want to play a game or work together on a project they have to sit on the floor, or cobble together several desks. It's unnatural.
With so much of our work in the writing class on the computer, I find tables to be an important physical, mental and social alternative to desks.
Tables encourage more creativity and social interaction, both of which are very important for the writing classroom. I chose the tables with the whiteboard tops to maximize collaboration and encourage brainstorming, the sharing of ideas, and just more creative communication. Right now I have a "POSiTivITy wall on which students can write encouraging "POST IT" notes to each other. My hope is that the writable table tops will encourage more of the same.
Overall this is just flex-seating that provides students with options; but with so much more emphasis being placed on mental health and student stress levels, constructing a more inviting environment in which students have some choice and more opportunities for creative outlets makes a lot of sense. This project will benefit both my current and future students.
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