THANK YOU so much for this video!! I am returning to the classroom after working in education-adjacent jobs for the last 14 years. (I taught 2nd grade after college, and am coming back to 3rd grade STEM.) Like you, I naturally/unintentionally did flex seating way back when without realizing it. Now that I've learned so much more and learned the real benefits of the practice, I've been collecting different seating options for my class, but I've been overwhelmed thinking about HOW to do it, how to manage it, etc. (Because before, we had desks, the carpet, one beanbag chair, and some pillows + me, a teacher who really didn't care if a kid wanted to lie under his desk and work for the day. Cool. Go for it. But now that I have a bunch of stuff and I really want to be intentional about setting it up and practicing it? WHERE DO I START?!) I've really appreciated hearing about your perspective and your experience AND I appreciate that you shared about the times it didn't work perfectly. Hearing how you adjusted (and were flexible, yourself!) is super helpful. Thanks ALSO for that shot of your flex seating anchor chart. Really....just thank you for all the stuff you included here! I've been scouring the internet and social media for weeks and boom. Here you are. In my brain with literally everything I've been curious about all collected into one place. AND you're in my grade level?! Perfect lol Thanks, again!!
I loved hearing you began with flexible seating in K. I started flexible seating last year with my kindergarten students and it worked miraculously. This year I am adding more options and I have a standing/bar stool table, a wobble chair table, bouncy ball table, a floor table, and many options for the floor. I am glad to hear I'm not crazy. 😁
Thank you for this video. I did flex seating some last year, but this year I’m going all in with flex seating. I loved watching this video for the helpful tips.
I teach high school electives; and I am working on getting the hang of it. So far for lectures they have assigned seats and independent work time and study hall they can move around more. I have chairs and a couch and those are the popular spots haha
I like the idea of flexible seating, I even have a few seating alternatives in my classroom. What I don’t like is having to scrap the whole thing when it comes to standardized testing. The commotion to “tear it down” and put it back up before and after testing is highly annoying. But. I will see what I can swing this year. Ever trying to make it work.
Love all of your videos! I have had flexible seating in my classroom since my first year of teaching. (Starting year #5 this fall). I won a grant my first year. I have had class sizes of 20-25 each year. This year I will have a bigger class size and will have 2 classes as I will be teaching Dual Language this year and my students will rotate halfway during the day. In terms of storage for materials what have you found most useful? I have used bins in the past but always end up putting too many materials in the bins 😂 I have chairs and stools in my class so chair sacks wouldn’t work for all of my students. Any advice would be appreciated!
I am interested in having flexible seating this school year, I just am not sure how it will work during state testing, how do you handle state testing and making sure everyone is facing the same direction and spread evenly/won't be able to see another person's test?
Our admin checked with the state and there is nothing against flexible seating during testing. But yes, they do need to be spread out. Also, I make sure that no student is sitting on the floor during testing because that would definitely be uncomfortable. I usually let them chose their own testing seat and tell them to find a spot that they can sit at all day. I've also brought in extra tables/desks and chairs for testing as well.
Question. You said that your school was K-6, so I'm guessing you don't have the 6 graders as middle schoolers, but are there any teachers doing it for the older grades? It seems like something that tends to get "aged out." I taught 6-8 in 2007-2010 and found that my students liked anything "weird" I did with seating, but I had a lot of limitations and I was definitely the "crazy" teacher. I came back to education in 2020 and now flexible seating is a big thing. (Obviously, not so much in 2020 but lets ignore that.) I'm curious if trying to do it in middle school will make everyone think I'm crazy again. lol
Yes, teachers at my school are doing it in all grade levels. Even our middle school has flexible seating. They have an entire learning space that is only flexible seating and the kids love it! It's all about which type of furniture you put in the room. Younger kids are more likely to want to sit on cushions on the ground. Whereas older kids may like tables that they can adjust or move around the room to create group spaces or even chairs with wheels on them.
