Many teachers are starting to ride the “flexible classrooms” wave, especially Shannon Houston, a third grade teacher at Brushy Creek Elementary.
A flexible classroom is a classroom that is designed to be flexible and work with students so they can learn in an environment that is best suited for them. Flexible classrooms offer a variety of different things for students but most noticeably they offer different seating options instead of regular desks.
In Shannon Huston’s classroom there are no desks, instead, she provides bean-bag chairs, couches, and rugs for students to sit on. In the interview, she says this is because “every student learns differently. There are some that work better if they’re standing and some that work better if they can just spread out on the floor”. She acknowledges the fact that each individual student has different needs to ensure that they are learning to the best of their ability and being “chained” to a desk does not facilitate that.
You should not be afraid to incorporate different seating options into your classroom to mix up the layout. By taking out desks children will be encouraged to interact with each other and find out how they learn best. Giving them the freedom to sit in a beanbag chair instead of a desk all class can make them more attentive and ready to learn. However, a flexible classroom can be hard to achieve. It is not realistic to think that you can walk into school one morning and magically get a classroom makeover. Take it slow. Accumulate different seating options over time and use the process to figure out what your students like and what works best for you as a teacher. You need to feel comfortable in your classroom but so do your students.
Classroom Layouts 