Flexible seating in classrooms has become popular over the past few years as educators try to make school feel like a welcoming place with different kinds of spaces for different types of learning. Frustrated with static rows of clunky desks, some teachers have taken to rearranging their rooms, bringing in furniture from home, and generally trying to shake up the way classrooms feel by paying attention to lighting, color and clutter. Educators who have followed this path insist there are some serious considerations to keep in mind.
“I’m huge into student choice,” said Sarah Fox, a third-grade teacher in rural North Dakota. Fox presented with several other educators at the International Society for Technology in Education on the challenges large and small to changing her classroom design. “I really like the collaborative piece of doing this because I can group my students and they can go find a spot and work.”