Student placement in the room is one of the great tools that teachers have to manage the class and to help students build relationships. Also, I'm with you. It was always the only hope in hell I had of learning names before Thanksgiving.
Back in the years when we had a long vacationless stretch between New Years and Easter, I would have two weeks of a new seating chart every day. It's the little things that keep life interesting.
I hold the same belief. If a child is struggling in a spot, I move them. I often keep initial seating the same but students will move about and work with different groups. There is a comfort in knowing a spot is yours.
I could not agree with this more. Students appreciate the safety and fairness of assigned seats. It removes social dynamics and barriers from this aspect of class and for anyone who is still against it, one of the strongest considerations IMO is that students with IEPs and 504s would otherwise be somewhat singled out for preferential seating rather than it being an anonymous part of the seating chart. I change my seating chart after every unit so students get opportunities to sit with new peers and I can update based on dynamics if a pairing is not going well.
And when you intentionally plan for groupings…the student who is not confident or has fewer social connections has somewhere to go, and does not then spend the rest of the class feeling terrible because they were the last one chosen for a group. Well planned structures for the win!
Student placement in the room is one of the great tools that teachers have to manage the class and to help students build relationships. Also, I'm with you. It was always the only hope in hell I had of learning names before Thanksgiving.
Back in the years when we had a long vacationless stretch between New Years and Easter, I would have two weeks of a new seating chart every day. It's the little things that keep life interesting.
Haha, I can just imagine my students groaning at this. How did it turn out for your students? Every single day? For two weeks?
I hold the same belief. If a child is struggling in a spot, I move them. I often keep initial seating the same but students will move about and work with different groups. There is a comfort in knowing a spot is yours.
I could not agree with this more. Students appreciate the safety and fairness of assigned seats. It removes social dynamics and barriers from this aspect of class and for anyone who is still against it, one of the strongest considerations IMO is that students with IEPs and 504s would otherwise be somewhat singled out for preferential seating rather than it being an anonymous part of the seating chart. I change my seating chart after every unit so students get opportunities to sit with new peers and I can update based on dynamics if a pairing is not going well.
And when you intentionally plan for groupings…the student who is not confident or has fewer social connections has somewhere to go, and does not then spend the rest of the class feeling terrible because they were the last one chosen for a group. Well planned structures for the win!