Floor or Bore?: Unconventional Seating in Classrooms
Let me walk you through an average day at a public school. Get to school, sit in uncomfortable seats, go to the next class, more uncomfortable seating, go to lunch, keep going to class and sitting in uncomfortable seats, repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat. In the school building, desks are the bane of students' existence. They make learning extremely difficult, while alternatives to desks can positively impact a students learning ability.
Unconventional seating has become more popular in recent years with many teachers transitioning to tables, beanbags, and even floor seating. These types of seats can give students more creative ideas and can help them be comfortable while they learn. Unlike the traditional desk styles, students won’t feel cramped or uncomfortable sitting for long periods of time.
Unconventional seating has increased in popularity in Riley High School over the past few years. In classrooms like Kristen Haubold’s, unconventional seating is encouraged and used daily. In her classroom, she has seven groups of two tables with 4 seats per table group. In her classroom, there are also some desk chairs that have wheels and recline and also can be adjusted height wise.
The seating that her classroom offers students a much needed break from the conventional classroom setup that the students face throughout the rest of the day. Not only does unconventional seating implement better creative engagement, but it also can help students feel more comfortable. Students that are taller or larger don’t have to worry about the uncomfortable way that desks will make them feel.
One of the problems that is seen in Riley’s school building when it comes to the lack of all teachers having unconventional seating arrangements is proper funding for other options. The school has an abundance of desks, but lacks a good amount of tables. When asked why more teachers don’t have desks, Haubold replied “The tables and chairs I have were purchased several years ago when New Tech High School was here at Riley. I inherited them with my classroom. More teachers don’t have tables because the corporation purchased desks ages ago and that’s what we still have. Furniture is expensive.”
Getting student insight on this issue was essential seeing as they are the ones who have to deal with it. From my personal experience, desks hurt my back and after sitting in them for long periods of time, I get extremely restless and uncomfortable. I knew that I wasn’t the only student who felt like this, so I reached out to a fellow student here at Riley High School.
Taylor Ring, a freshman at Riley, had really good points about unconventional seating. In a few of her classes, she has different setups compared to the regular desks. In her English class, there are large tables surrounding the entire classroom which makes group work an essential part of the teacher's workload. In other classes, she has the option to stand up and be able to move around.
One of the classes that Taylor thoroughly enjoys is her Nutrition and Wellness class. While that classroom has traditional desks, it is connected to the kitchen where students get to work together to create their own food from recipes that the teacher provides. Taylor likes being able to stand up in this class and move around because it gives her a lot more freedom.
One of the problems that Taylor brought up was a lack of personal space with the seating. Taylor states, “I wish I could move around. I only can in Ms. Emkow’s. In every other classroom the seats are squished together and there is no room to move around.”
Another teacher who has unconventional seating is Nancy Simoni. Simoni is a biology teacher here at Riley High School and she has her lab space as well as table seating. It is vital in science rooms to have lab spaces for experiments that need to be completed as well as to give students more space to work.
All of the science rooms at Riley are different. Some have multiple lab tables, some only have a few large lab areas, and others are spread out together in a mix. Simoni’s room has multiple lab tables which helps students work in small groups effectively and efficiently.
In her classroom, students complete partner-work as much as she can possibly get them to. Partner-work, to her, is necessary for real-life. She believes that students will learn how to collaborate and gain skills from other students by completing partner-work. Without the set up of her room, partner work wouldn’t be as effective because there wouldn’t be as much space to do things.
Besides completing partner-work, having non-traditional seating can help students decompress and just get away from the stress that they are feeling in their life. Simoni loves the idea of having a non-traditional area for students to work in. “Occasionally, as needed I do let students work on 'traditional' seated work in the lab. I believe having this area free to give a little flexibility has been useful over the years. Sometimes a student is having a rough day and just needs to decompress away from their peers. Or perhaps has been absent a bit and is making up work. This gives a quieter space for work to be completed while still being a part of the classroom community.”
The lab area has stools for students to work on and also has higher tables where students can stand if they need. Spaces like these are necessary for students to be able to learn.
In the classroom, you have probably noticed kids rocking or tapping pencils or shaking their legs. Sensory issues and ADHD are prominent in schools today and these students need outlets that they aren’t getting through just sitting in uncomfortable desks. An article through School Outfitters demonstrated the different reasons why unconventional seating is good for students.
In the article, people with sensory needs strive for seating that can move with them. Some seats that can rock can be incredibly helpful for these students. Other seats that can help them are seats that students can sit in that have a pit-like seat and they can move around a lot.
Unconventional seating is extremely important in high schools and grade school. These seats can help students focus and learn and can help students win. All schools should try to implement unconventional seating. A world without it would be a boring world.