The Transforming Classroom
The traditional classroom, with individual student desks facing the front of the room, is becoming a thing of the past. The days of "sit still, face forward and quietly pay attention" are coming to an end. Although I am a product of this type of classroom, and often struggle with breaking tradition, I can definitely see the immense benefit to revamping the tradition.
Today's students, whether child or adult, are having more and more difficulty in meeting the expectation of remaining still and keeping quiet and focused during classes. I can appreciate this since I have always struggled with this as well. With the boom of sensory and behavior disorders, such as ADHD, it seems that administrators are seeing the need for change and are answering that call. Over the last several years, many classrooms have adopted group seating arrangements and are incorporating movement into daily lessons in all subject areas. Students are getting to move outside of gym class and recess! This sounds like an environment that I would have thrived in, had it been available to me. On the other hand, where does that leave the introvert students who may greatly prefer the traditional type of classroom?
I couldn't agree more. Kids need to explore their environment to thrive.
ReplyDeleteGreat read! I believe that every classroom should incorporate both styles of learning. Students should be provided with all different styles of learning so that each child is able to learn in their own way.
ReplyDeleteHaley
Students should be taught to be flexible so this adjustment is an awesome idea. These kinds of classroom set ups promote social skills. Even the introvert student should have practice working with others and learn to communicate effectively to accomplish classroom goals.
ReplyDeleteYour title rocks :) Movement is a key to really connecting with the work. How will you incorporate movement into your teaching and learning?
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of when I was in 5th grade. We never had traditional seating arrangements now that I think about it. I remember it was our Language Arts, Reading class. And our desks were in a circle for most of the year. I do not necessarily remember what I learned in that class, but I remember who I sat near at different times and I remember enjoying the class.
ReplyDeleteWe would do things like this in high school as well, and I do definitely remember more activities and learning experiences for them. It could be just the fact that it is out of the ordinary cause the correlation and memories to resurface. It begs the question if non traditional seating becomes the norm will this again fall into the category of traditional. If everyone does it, is it really unique?