To Sit or to Stand?

Learning:

I grew up in a time when we were supposed to sit in our desks and face forward and pay attention, so when I started to teach, I arranged my desks in rows, and expected my well behaved students to sit, face forward, and pay attention.

One of my first graders taught me that while this arrangement might be convenient for the teacher, it was not workable for him. My new first grade class was a real challenge - lots of learning issues, behavior issues, and more. One boy I will call Z seemed pretty defiant to me. He was constantly out of his seat, and the more I insisted that he SIT DOWN, the more unmanageable and contrary he became.

I negotiated with Z one day. I told him I would let him stand up all day if he wanted to, but the conditions for this freedom were that he was to get his work done, and he was to not disturb anyone else. He was good with these stipulations, so I moved Z's stuff to an outside seat so that as he stood he would not be in anyone's line of vision.

Eureka! I had a totally different child! For the rest of the year, and during his second grade when I looped up with my class, Z was a pretty cooperative child, and best of all his learning skyrocketed.

The Cookie-Cutter Approach:

Recently a story made national news about a teacher who had special desks crafted that would allow her children to stand if needed. The desks were really cool! They had foot rests that allow a child to swing his foot while working, calculated to meet the need for motion some children have.

One thing that occurred to me was that most of us cannot find the funds to have special desks made.

 The next thing I noted was that the room was full of these special desks. Every child had one.

We tend to use a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to our kids and their learning. We try something new, and then try to apply it to all our learners. Children learn in many different ways; they have greatly varying needs when it comes to how they perform best in the classroom. While some of the students in that classroom might have truly been helped by these special desks, I suspect that others in the room found it distracting to have the variables to deal with. Some children actually learn BETTER and focus BETTER when sitting at a normal desk on a hard chair.

While Z was able to focus when I gave him the freedom to stand and lean over his desk to do his work, my other students, A through Y, would have considered standing during class a punishment and would NOT have been able to focus.

With Increased Focus As The Goal:

It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to meet the learning needs of our children. We can find out by observation if they do better sitting in a desk on a hard chair, or sitting on a soft surface, or standing, or lying on their tummies. Children, even very young ones, have the ability to become their own best friends by learning what helps them the most - by asking themselves the question: "What helps me focus the best?"

We can provide a few lost cost pillows (four or so), some inexpensive whiteboards to use as mobile desks, and give the class the option during classwork to choose the situation that will allow them to focus the best.

Simple Ground Rules:

1- The spot you choose for working must allow you to work BETTER.

2- Once you are there, you will not have the option of moving somewhere else.

3- You must not distract or disturb fellow classmates.

4- If we note that you are LESS able to get your work done where you have chosen to do your work, you will return to your desk.

I taught a boy (named M) in Kindergarten who found it nearly impossible to focus on his own work for watching any movement that occured within the range of his vision. In discussing our goal for focus together, we determined that M needed to sit and work in a place where he would not be able to see the movements the other children made while learning. M bought in to this decision enthusiastically.

Fast forward to his 1st grade year. M's father went to M's first grade classroom to volunteer. When he entered the classroom, he saw M sitting at a lone desk facing the wall. Naturally, Dad assumed M had been placed there by the teacher possibly for being naughty. When he questioned the teacher about why M was sitting alone facing the wall, the puzzled teacher shared with M's father that M himself had requested to sit there, telling the teacher he needed to focus.

Comments

[Allyson]

I saw the same news article/clip - I am trying standing tables in my classroom (I just increased the height on some of my tables - about 2/3 of my kids elected to stand when given the choice). It is working out quite well! See the attached link for some more info!

[Sarah Major]

Hi Allyson,
Great to hear from you and great to hear about the changes in your classroom! I love it that kids seem to always know what will work best for them once they understand the what the goal is!