Submitted by Sirius (not verified) on June 13, 2007 - 07:08.
My average class size has been 30...which still has enabled me to be creative with seating. Students would shake their heads at me throughout the semester because the desk arrangements changed throughout the week. I would make a large (tight fitting) square of 7 on two sides and 8 on the other sides for class discussion, have them slightly angled in rows for notes, have 3 rows of 5 with a space in the middle and 3 more rows of 5 for a lecture day when I wanted to use proximity for everyone, arranged in squares for small group projects, arranged into 3 large tables for something else -- the point was -- the desks aren't fixed and with a small amount of effort rearranging the furniture can start the day out with the kids getting into the right mindset. The biggest problem I found was that I teach multiple subjects throughout the day in a high school setting where I had a different set of students each period. Arranging my lessons for the variety of classes so that I didn't have to try to move furniture between classes was sometimes a challenge. The second challenge for me was those rare students who still...after 15 weeks of the desks changing twice a week would ask, "Are the desks going to stay this way?" when they would come in and see something different....
Why'd the room change?
Submitted by Sirius (not verified) on June 13, 2007 - 07:08.
My average class size has been 30...which still has enabled me to be creative with seating. Students would shake their heads at me throughout the semester because the desk arrangements changed throughout the week. I would make a large (tight fitting) square of 7 on two sides and 8 on the other sides for class discussion, have them slightly angled in rows for notes, have 3 rows of 5 with a space in the middle and 3 more rows of 5 for a lecture day when I wanted to use proximity for everyone, arranged in squares for small group projects, arranged into 3 large tables for something else -- the point was -- the desks aren't fixed and with a small amount of effort rearranging the furniture can start the day out with the kids getting into the right mindset. The biggest problem I found was that I teach multiple subjects throughout the day in a high school setting where I had a different set of students each period. Arranging my lessons for the variety of classes so that I didn't have to try to move furniture between classes was sometimes a challenge. The second challenge for me was those rare students who still...after 15 weeks of the desks changing twice a week would ask, "Are the desks going to stay this way?" when they would come in and see something different....