Desks

The blog that we read called "Choices, choices, choices" really got me thinking about how I want to set up my classroom. As a future teacher, I have often thought about what my classroom might look like. I know that I don’t want my students to sit by themselves in isolated rows while I stand up in the front of the classroom and talk at them for an hour or so. So what should I do? Push the desks together so that they can sit in groups? Form a circle of desks so that everyone can see and discuss with everyone else? Should I assign seats or let my students decide for themselves where they would like to sit? There are benefits and drawbacks to all of these options.

One thing that I worry about in letting students pick their own desks or groups to be in is the ones who get left out. As Paley noted in her book it is always the same kids over and over who are told that they can’t be in the group. Another thing that worries me, since I am looking at working within the middle schools, is that this will only reinforce the cliques that begin to really establish themselves during adolescent years. Students will continually choose to sit with the same people and never get to know or work with anyone else. We already have this in school- it is called lunch. One of our jobs, as teachers, is to help our students prepare for the “real” world. Well, in the “real” world they will have to work with other people that may not be their best friends. In fact they may even truly dislike the people they are working with, but they will still have to do it, and do it in a professional manner. If we are trying to teach our students of what to expect after they finish school, then we should be providing an example of it within school.

I do want to give my students choices though. So how can I do this without completely dictating where I want each of them to sit? Maybe some established rules like: you can’t sit with the same person or group twice or you can pick one person you want to be with and then I will choose the rest of the group? Maybe I can decide some group projects and let the students choose their group members for other projects? Or I could take Paley’s example and discuss it with the entire classroom to see how they would like to work together. It is an interesting question, and one I do not have the answer to yet.