I have two very comfortable chairs in my classroom.  One is my teacher’s chair and the other is an old chair that was being discarded from the faculty lounge.  Both chairs were originally for me.  At some point during last year, I had students always asking if they could “relax” in them until the bell rang and class started.  They would arrive early and always ask politely, so I had no problem with this.  Soon afterwards, other students would try and arrive first so they could sit and relax.  I thought this was amusing that seniors were coming to my class early for the opportunity to unwind in a chair for three minutes. 

One day, I placed them randomly in my classroom, taking the place of two of the traditional metal chairs that my students sit in.  I rarely sit down during class so it made no sense to me to have the chairs unoccupied.  Before class, the usual group that arrived first, wanted to take them over to where they usually sit.  I said the deal was they sit where the chairs are.  That is exactly what happened.  Students that usually sat in the same place, everyday (I have no seating chart for my students), began moving wherever the chairs were.  I now move them everyday and it mixes things up in the classroom.  I have since added a third chair as well!

These “comfy” chairs do not add to the relevance of my lessons or enhance the learning of all of my students, but they add energy to my classroom by creating a new seating arrangement at the start of each class. It also makes it easy to quickly form groups (I have trapezoid tables placed together that sit 4 students each) that are usually different each time. 

Who would have thought that a simple nice gesture on my part would transform the environment of my classroom!!   

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Be sure to check out the “idea of the week” and “website of the week” at www.energizetheclassroom.com .

-Paul Richmond

 E.T.C.