The Great Seat Debate

Seating arrangements.  Hmph.

I've always considered myself to be quite the seating chart queen.  I'm very observant, and understand how a kid's mind works when it comes to sitting my classmates.  Elementary kiddos were pretty easy to work with.  Organize students according to gender, academic ability, and how social they are (aka, talkers/non-talkers).  Desk groups worked out really well and encouraged students to work with one another and lean on each other for support.

Middle school?  Not so much.  This is a new territory for me, when it comes to seating arrangements.  What on EARTH do you do with middle schoolers?  I can manipulate the seating chart enough so that I separate the talkers, the students who are "going out", and the students who like to cause trouble or drama.  But the arrangement of the actual desks is a whole other ball game.

But what do you do with the actual desks?  I'm currently tackling this problem and want to share my journey with you.  This is how my classroom looked when I first began:

If I've learned anything about arranging desks in middle school, it's that with my mixture of kiddos, grouping desks will definitely not work.  They like to talk, and most of them get along and know one another very well.  It appears that putting desks into groups of 4-5 desks only increases their desire and ability to talk during class-time.

So why not rows, then?  Well, having desks arranged into rows like it was when I started allowed students to talk to pretty much anyone.  Students were in an arms reach of at least eight students nearby.  It was not working.  

To solve my problem, I went on a research expedition.  I sought out advice from several veteran teachers, asked to see their desk arrangements, and inquired about how well they work.  Only ONE of the five teachers I talked to used desk groups.  I guess that's definitely not how I'll arrange them.

Another problem is the TYPE of desks I have in my room - the type where the chairs are connected to the desks.  That eliminates several types of arrangement possibilities for the sole reason that students can't get in to their desks.  So much to consider!

Well, I think I may have a solution.  Of course, I'm going to make you wait a week to find out if and how it's working.  But I think the key to my success will be the combination of my seating chart secrets (which have allowed me to have some success thus far into my middle-school experience) and putting more SPACE in between students that my classroom had before.

What are YOUR seating arrangement secrets?

:)  Emily