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What are your thoughts on "alternative seating"?

Josie

*probably reading smut*
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Alternative seating in a classroom is where the teacher sets up the classroom where students either have a seat that's different from the traditional chair or they can choose from many different kinds of seats. These seats could be regular chairs, bean bags, pillows on the floor, exercise balls, etc. They say that this creates an environment where students are more comfortable and more likely to pay attention.

Your thoughts?

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Alternative seating in a classroom is where the teacher sets up the classroom where students either have a seat that's different from the traditional chair or they can choose from many different kinds of seats. These seats could be regular chairs, bean bags, pillows on the floor, exercise balls, etc. They say that this creates an environment where students are more comfortable and more likely to pay attention.

Your thoughts?

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Not sure. My high school had a few classes that were taught by the headmaster where the classes were in the room next to his office with a bunch of couches on the walls. I really enjoyed it. Spurred conversation. But that was in advanced level high school classes. This seems like the kind of thing that's fairly easy to test. Do it in a few classrooms and ask the teachers how it works.
 
If it works, I am all for it. Has any research been done?
 
I have to admit if I had a exercise ball to sit on when I was in class as a kid I would probably spend too much time trying to balance myself on it without my feet touching the floor. :3oops:
 
I have to admit if I had a exercise ball to sit on when I was in class as a kid I would probably spend too much time trying to balance myself on it without my feet touching the floor. :3oops:

haha same here. I'd be bouncing and rolling around all day and pay less attention than I already was. I don't see how this wouldn't disrupt a classroom full of kids.
 
If it works, I am all for it. Has any research been done?

Research shows that it's excellent for certain kids who need to constantly move (ADHD) or have sensory issues (autism spectrum).

There are a couple teachers at my school that have lots of seating options all day. It seems very ..... chaotic .... to me.
 
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I had a big ball I sat on for a while and it was comfortable. Same goes for the "knee chair".

As a guy with a job that involves a whole lot of sitting I try to change things up as much as possible. I haven't gone with one of those adjustable, standing desks yet but maybe at some point I'll try that too.

When it comes to kids and classrooms, it's nice to make things fun for them and I could see a beanbag chair in the corner or something but not for regular seating. I liked what I saw with the balls but not so much with the low table and cushions. Maybe I's swap the latter out for a picnic table.
 
haha same here. I'd be bouncing and rolling around all day and pay less attention than I already was. I don't see how this wouldn't disrupt a classroom full of kids.

That's exactly what is happening in a classroom at my school. The kids are allowed to lay down on their exercise ball, bounce up and down as hard as they can and they're constantly falling off of them. I couldn't take that.

I'm not against this kind of seating entirely. It just depends on how it's managed. I wouldn't use the exercise balls, but I'm all for pillows, bean bags and other chairs for independent centers. But when I'm teaching a whole class lesson where everyone needs to pay attention - nope - regular chairs.
 
Alternative seating in a classroom is where the teacher sets up the classroom where students either have a seat that's different from the traditional chair or they can choose from many different kinds of seats. These seats could be regular chairs, bean bags, pillows on the floor, exercise balls, etc. They say that this creates an environment where students are more comfortable and more likely to pay attention.

Your thoughts?

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No thank you.

I'm of the opinion we need to stop giving students the option to pay attention and make them pay attention. I'm also of the opinion too many classrooms have too much junk in them and that it is no surprise at all students have problems focusing in a classroom. No offense to you, Josie, but elementary teachers are the absolute worst about this, at least in the schools I've been in. I've been in classrooms where you can barely walk and there's no white space on the wall.

Attention span can be taught. Some children will have more difficulty than others, but what else is new in education? So I'm against this idea and favor an idea of teaching attention.
 
Research shows that it's excellent for certain kids who need to constantly move (ADHD) or have sensory issues (autism spectrum).

There are a couple teachers at my school that have lots of seating options all day. It seems very ..... chaotic .... to me.

So it would be something more for special needs classes?
 
So it would be something more for special needs classes?

Sure -- but there are special needs kids in regular classrooms too.
 
Not sure we NEED this:

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but at the same time a classroom is not the playground.

For some kids, especially elementary school aged kids, I would think alternative seating choices could cause problems.

But honestly, it should be up to the teacher, and the parents of the kids as to what works best.
 
Sure -- but there are special needs kids in regular classrooms too.

Point taken.

I kinda like the idea of cushions or been bag chairs with low (or adjustable) desks. Especially as an occasional thing, been bag Friday, or a reward for the class doing well. That of course raises the question of cost.
 
Alternative seating in a classroom is where the teacher sets up the classroom where students either have a seat that's different from the traditional chair or they can choose from many different kinds of seats. These seats could be regular chairs, bean bags, pillows on the floor, exercise balls, etc. They say that this creates an environment where students are more comfortable and more likely to pay attention.

Your thoughts?

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This was big for a few years in the 1970's.....it did not last long because teachers felt like it gave the kids the wrong impression on what matters during classtime.
 
One of the bigger mistakes of our deeply broken very expensive education system.

Not at all unless they're disruptive to the other kids.
 
Not at all unless they're disruptive to the other kids.

Mainstreaming is expensive and it adds to the very long running problem of holding our best and brightest students back.....mainstreaming even in the best cases tends to hold even average students back, and all we get out of it is sometimes the warm fuzzies of knowing they we tried to treat the abnormal as normal...we pretend really.

I was never a fan, and the experience has proved me right.
 
Alternative seating in a classroom is where the teacher sets up the classroom where students either have a seat that's different from the traditional chair or they can choose from many different kinds of seats. These seats could be regular chairs, bean bags, pillows on the floor, exercise balls, etc. They say that this creates an environment where students are more comfortable and more likely to pay attention.

Your thoughts?

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Run some long dated studies and we will see. Kibbuz educatiin was all the rage and then turned out to be bad for kids' development and is now in the guise of pre kindergarden day care as early as one year of age all the rage and talking heads swear it is the best since the invention of apple pie.
 
Run some long dated studies and we will see. Kibbuz educatiin was all the rage and then turned out to be bad for kids' development and is now in the guise of pre kindergarden day care as early as one year of age all the rage and talking heads swear it is the best since the invention of apple pie.

It does not get much worse than retrying failed ideas, pretending that we dont know that they are failed ideas.

WE USED TO BE BETTER
 
It does not get much worse than retrying failed ideas, pretending that we dont know that they are failed ideas.

WE USED TO BE BETTER
Damn straight! Back when we threw the crazies in the loony bin and kept them black children out of our schools...THAT'S when this country was great! :roll:

Sorry, I'm not trying to accuse you of being racist or against those with special needs, but I long ago grew tired of a nostalgic vision of what America never was.
 
Not sure we NEED this:

efe8a0a92ad2867fcfd3fe101f7fc106.jpg


but at the same time a classroom is not the playground.

For some kids, especially elementary school aged kids, I would think alternative seating choices could cause problems.

But honestly, it should be up to the teacher, and the parents of the kids as to what works best.
Man, put the kids in uniforms, toss a crucifix on the wall, and have a nun in full habit teaching, and that could be my grammar school!

(which I dearly loved)
 
It does not get much worse than retrying failed ideas, pretending that we dont know that they are failed ideas.

WE USED TO BE BETTER

....unless the failed idea was the failure in understanding how good it really was. ;)
 
Love it! It does come with its issues like kids fighting for certain seatings that are limited (think bean bags). Also, some kids can be distracting on the bounce balls. We experimented and found out that ground rules have to be in place prior to implementing, gone over, and posted. Makes life so much easier.
 
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