Flexible Seating

Flexible seating... what is it? Is it a fad? Should you jump on the "bandwagon" and try it out too? Lets first start off with what flexible seating is NOT! Flexible seating is not getting rid of all of your classroom chairs, replacing them with yoga balls, and calling it a day! Flexible seating is also not a free for all for your students. I can just imagine all of the chaos if you through a bunch of students into a room with all these different seating choices and no direction on how to use them appropriately. In this video I go into my thoughts on flexible seating and how I implement it into my classroom.

Expectations are EVERYTHING!!! This includes flexible seating. I can't expect my class to use flexible seating correctly without first modeling it for them. That's why I begin every year with an anchor chart. Yes, there will be excitement. Yes, there will be arguing about who gets which seat first. Yes, it will be scary at first. Yes... it does get better. The "newness" of flexible seating wears off and flexible seating becomes the new normal. I don't have students "earn" flexible seating because it's just how our classroom runs.

Flexible Seating I Use

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I'm Not a Turkey

With Thanksgiving coming up, I am reminded of all the things that I am thankful for. I am thankful for my wonderful family and friends. I am also thankful for such a sweet bunch of second graders this year. I want to keep this post short and sweet so I will leave you with one of my favorite writing activities, I'm not a turkey. I'm sure there are many variations of this activity, but I just love it so much. I love the creativity that comes out during this assignment. One of my favorites... I'm not a turkey. A turkey has feathers. I have hands. Can I ask you a question? Do turkeys go to school? No they do not. I am a student. I talk a lot. If you eat me, I can talk in your stomach. If you eat a student, you go to jail. Ohhh so creative!!

Marshmallow Mouths and Toes

If you are anything like me, I enjoy having a straight quiet line while walking in the hallways. It makes me proud to show off my class because it shows that they have respect for other learners. And lets be real here, it is down right embarrassing when you have a noisy class walking in line. It's like a stampede is coming. For years I have used bubbles in your mouth and hands behind your back. Well this is good for the quite mouths, but I still get stompers in my class. Last year it wasn't a huge deal because our hallways were carpeted, but now they are just concrete, so noise spreads so easily. This year I decided to use marshmallow mouths and toes. I started off by bringing out the marshmallows. I had a lot of oooohhhhhsssss and aaaaahhhhhsssss... exactly what I wanted. We talked about marshmallows and used our 5 senses to describe them. This was also a perfect way to introduce adjectives. After we made a list, I let each of my students eat a marshmallow. WHAT?? We ge...

Classroom Management

With the school year starting soon, I'm sure a lot of us are reworking our classroom management plans. Some of you may even be making your for the first time. No matter where you are in the process, I always believe that it is the most important. I've always believed that if you don't have good classroom management, then everything else you do is a waste of time. What is the point in teaching a lesson while your students aren't paying attention? You're just going to have to reteach it. Why not use your time wisely and be productive. With all of the right procedures in place, your classroom will run smoother than butter! Sure classroom management and procedures take a while to teach and learn, but it is all worth it in the end. I am currently reworking my management procedures and when I do I will make an updated post. For today though I want to share with you what I did last year. When I first started teaching I was using this behavior chart. I wasn't really a f...

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