There wasn’t one decisive moment where I said, “I’m going to abandon my desks and rows for flexible seating!” It was not an epiphany. It was not an automatic switch that I flipped. Instead, how I transitioned to a flexible seating classroom was slowly over time- at the pace of my own comfort.
I have always considered myself a rather flexible teacher. Allowing students to move based on student to student, minute to minute circumstances basis has always been something I’m very comfortable with. My first two years of teaching, I had traditional desks set up, but always allowed students to move when necessary. From my second to my third year teaching, I was displaced to another building in my district and my class list grew from 17 students to 29. This dramatic increase was intimidating and I found myself in a constant battle to spread kids out, make more spaces, and increase area for learning.
You could say flexible seating found me, not really the other way around.
Once I had 2 years under my belt with 29 in the classroom, I was feeling more confident in my abilities to be more flexible with student choice on a daily basis. Yet at the end of those 2 years, I found myself with another dramatic increase on my class list. I was to change grade levels and leave my self contained classroom of 2nd graders to departmentalize reading for the entire grade level. Just thinking about 87 students in the room throughout one day was the last push I needed to let go of any fears and give flexible seating a real try.
So, I put up a donors choose project online. I started small with 4 yoga balls and 4 wobble stools. I grabbed pillows from Walmart and 5 below. I picked up some yoga mats that I cut in half that could be moved around the room. Then I decided the what of my flexible seating plan, but still hadn’t settled on the how.
1st year being fully flexible went surprisingly smooth. It could have been the relationship I already had with the students being their previous 2nd grade teacher, or some other magical fairy dust charming the classroom that year, but my students just understand what to do and how to do it. I had very few behavior problems and very few issues with seats.
2nd year of flexible seating and I was feeling ready to go. Confident I could replicate the environment I created last year, I rolled out everything the same.
Yet, nothing turned out the same.
I ended up putting away my wobble stools and taking home the yoga balls. There never came a point in the year when I felt like I could get them back out. I was discouraged. The class was “flexible” in the fact that I allowed some kids to have flexible seating on assigned days; however, it was never more than 7-8 students at a time.
I began watching and following a lot of teachers on Instagram that were doing flexible seating. There are tons of amazing teachers out there with fantastic tips and tricks. It was then I decided I would I come back strong from this not so successful year and learn from these mistakes. It would require me to implement the entire flexible seating process more explicitly. Teach expectations much slower, allowing students to try each seat and reflect. And above all, not let any undesirable behaviors slide.
I decided on a 21 day roll out plan- and this changed the game.
This 21 day roll out plan was an idea adapted from the concepts behind The First 21 Days of School. I already used a similar system with rolling out literacy stations and expectations. Why not try this same successful method with flexible seating? We practiced, modeled, tried out, reflected, and practiced some more with each and every seat in the room. We created t-charts and developed our own rules as a class on how to use the seating properly and how not to.
This mindset shift changed everything.
While every class will be different, this release process into flexible seating over many days allowed the group of 87 to understand the expectations together. They took more responsibility for how they personally took care of the furniture. They made more responsible choices about what type of seat would fit the work they were doing. And I have less and less behavior and management issues because the kids are learning to regulate and manage themselves.
From the original 4 wobble stools, 4 yoga balls, and 4 pillow seats, our room has added on the addition of office rolling chairs, high stools, crate seats, camper seats, lap desks, loungers from IKEA, and a futon. I keep my eye on sales, frequent facebook marketplace, hit up garage sales, and always grab that free stuff teachers shove into hallways.
So what I’m really trying to say here is my flexible seating journey is one that took place over many years; learning, adapting, and making changes as I went.
One of the biggest mistakes teachers make is thinking it has to be done all at once!
I’m sharing my journey with you to show you this is not the case. Start small. Pick 2-3 types of seats you want to implement. Add on as your students seem ready. Or as you find some killer deal in a store you just cant pass up. Don’t let the learning curve of managing a flexible classroom hold you back. Roll with the punches, adapt to your kids, because after all; managing a flexible classroom means that you too, must be flexible!
