Guest Blogger- Joe

We have another guest blogger this week, Joe Pennington.  Below is Joe's sharing of his flexible seating set up in his room.
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I have always been a proponent of students working in pairs and groups to share thoughts and ideas that benefit learning.  I found that it was often difficult to provide good work areas for this with the older desks that were in my classroom that are connected to the seats and difficult to get together allowing students their own individual space.  So, that led me to consider alternative seating options.  I started with getting tables and chairs for my classroom that allows students a better opportunity to work together and support each other during their learning.  I was also able to find a number of rolling office chairs for a good price that increased the ease of movement to adjust seating arrangements, and it offered students a more comfortable learning environment.  These new seating options have been a positive change to my classroom in several ways.  

One of the biggest changes has been the excitement that many students now bring to class.  Students can be comfortable and have plenty of room on the tables for all of their supplies, and it is easier for students to share information and ideas with each other with the current setup.  I also was able to create more space in the room for students to stand and move around as needed.  Some students need this space and freedom, and I often have one or two students that choose to stand in the back of the room during class.  A few have also decided to sit on the floor from time to time.  Students also have the freedom to choose where to sit each day, and some students will switch seats to ask questions to other students while they are working on assignments.  Some students prefer working individually, and there are still a few individual desks for students to choose as desired.  Since incorporating the new seating arrangement, student achievement has increased with improved scores on assessments and fewer retakes than previous years.

I know that several other classrooms in the school have been transformed with tables and chairs, and other teachers are seeing similar results with student learning.  However, I realize that my current classroom setup may be improved, and it is still not ideal for all students.  I have been reading more about flexible seating options, and I am pursuing ways to improve the learning environment for all students.  Some of the items I would like to include are additional seating options (such as bean bags, pillows, stools, and exercise balls), and I plan to raise a couple of tables to create standing stations.  This will create more student choice and help provide the best learning environment for my students to feel comfortable and achieve success.  

Questions to consider:

1. How do you decide to set up and arrange your classroom? Why?
2. How do you select student seating?  Do you assign seats or let students choose their own seats?  Why?
3. How can you improve your classroom environment to increase student learning?  

Thankful Teacher

Last year around thanksgiving, I provided a reading about a thankful teacher.  I wanted to do that again.  Here is an entry from a teacher that writes often on his website.  His bio information is below.  Take some time to read what he has to say about what he is thankful for and some questions for you to consider.


Jordan Catapano is a high school English teacher in a Chicago suburb. In addition to being National Board Certificated and head of his school’s Instructional Development Committee, he also has worked with the Illinois Association of Teachers of English and has experience as a school board member for a private school. You can follow him on Twitter at @BuffEnglish, or visit his website www.jordancatapano.us.

Guest Blogger- Visiting a Colleague-Lauren

As part of one of my PGP goals, I am seeking out opportunities to observe fellow teachers in their classrooms. This goal developed when I had the revelation at the beginning of this school year that while I know many of you personally, or I know what students say about you and your classes, I don’t actually know how a typical day in your classroom looks through the eyes of our students. I believe it was during a building tour for the August BLT meeting that we re-entered the school through Gabe’s room and I said, “Wow, this is my 5th year here and I have never been in Gabe’s classroom!”  I decided then that I was going to make an effort to get into multiple classrooms this year. We have a great teaching staff that I know is doing great things, so I want to observe, and hopefully learn a thing or two from some of you!

So far I have spent a period in T-B and Abby’s rooms. While I did not discover anything revolutionary with regard to teaching strategies, I did see a lot of “best practices” being used in a different content area than my own and that really reinforced for me the effectiveness of using some of our basic tools in our teaching toolbox on a daily basis to reach the most students.

I saw T-B have students practice using the language individually, as a class, and by getting up and mingling with each other to practice dialogue. She also used a variety of mediums—text, speech, and (attempted 😉) audio. Again, not a new concept in teaching, and I’m sure she does these things every day without a second thought, but it helped me to reflect on my own classroom; am I providing opportunities for my students to learn the material several different ways with a variety of mediums?

In Abby’s room they were practicing parliamentary procedure. She had warned me ahead of time that it was going to be organized chaos, which is always fun to watch as an outsider. A teaching practice that was reinforced during this observation was student connection/contribution to the content. Students got to make up their own motions and amendments, and while most were silly, the students showed that they understood the process and all students were involved. One thing that really stood out to me during my observation was Abby’s use of a random word list. Each time students were to announce if they were for or against a motion she would use a different random word which kept the students fully engaged in the activity. I enjoyed the list so much that I’ve started brainstorming ways that I can use “random” words in my own classroom to encourage buy-in during certain activities the way it did during Abby’s parliamentary procedure practice. I’m leaning towards the route of content specific “random” words of the week or day in which students will interact.

I know we are all very busy during the day, and giving up a planning period to observe another teacher’s classroom may not currently be at the top of our list, but I encourage you to give it a try. The students enjoy seeing you in their other classes, you learn some things about the students watching them in a different setting, and you just may pick up a new teaching idea, or be reminded of one you haven’t utilized in a while.

Questions to consider:

1. Is there a teacher that you are curious about what goes on in their classroom or you want to see why they are a student favorite…or possibly non-favorite?
2. How can you set aside time to get in their room for a period?
3. After spending a period in their room, what did you take away?

Developing a Growth Mindset-Educators

Here is an article that I found while doing some personal PD.  I wanted to read some articles on Edutopia about educators and growth mindset.  Edutopia is a great site to search for articles that are relevant and easy to get through.

As we move into a time where we start to work with our students on mindset, it is important to reflect back on our own mindset.  The last few delays have been designed to help the staff in that process.

Consider these questions after looking at the linked article:

1.  I find tip #1 very interesting.  I can tell you what those "hard things" are that I don't focus on enough.  What are your "hard things" that you choose not to focus on?

2.  Tip #3 is to seek feedback when possible.  A few of your colleagues have been observing each other (or have planned to) in an effort to see what other people are doing in their rooms and get feedback.  Is that something you could consider?

3.  Tip #5 reminds us to reflect.  Reflecting back on the day, week, month, or year is useful in any field.  How can you spend more time reflecting on what is happening daily in your classroom?