3K News!
Announcements
5/12: Greenfield Hall Field Trip
5/16: Edelman Planetarium Field Trip
If you would like to be a chaperone for our Greenfield Hall Field Trip or Indian King Tavern Field Trip (June 9th). Please follow this link: http://goo.gl/forms/7bd13rQM1W
Student Centered Flexible Seating
This week, 3K received a makeover! The inspiration originated from a Starbucks and was mixed in with many hours of research. When waiting in line for a cup of coffee, I noticed all of the wonderful areas that Starbucks had created to make their customers feel comfortable and to support them to do their best work. I thought about how this could translate into our own 3K classroom. After researching through many different articles, I found that flexible seating has worked for other teachers. Instead of only seeing traditional desks and chairs, when you enter 3K, you will see yoga balls, crate seats, standing desks, cushions, stools, a bench, and mini-desks.
Students have the responsibility to pick places around the room where they can do their best learning. We have extensively discussed how this might change from one subject to the next. For example, a student might enjoy sitting on the carpet to read their book, but they might rather work at a standing desk for math. Students have developed a list of expectations of how they think that the materials should be used so they can do their best learning. This has also opened the door for conversations about etiquette. For example, if you want to sit at a specific chair at Starbucks, it would be impolite to run over to it when you walk through the door, or if you want to sit at a stool that someone else is sitting at, it might be disrespectful to hover over that person.
In our first week of flexible seating, students have found great ownership over their learning and finding areas where they learn best. Check out how they feel about our flexible seating in the Padlet below!