Flex Seating #3- What I learned

So what did I learn from this whole experience?  A lot!

The kids transitioned really well from my desk groups to the flex seating options.  There were of course, some items that were highly sought after, but mostly they solved the issues themselves.  One of the options, the wiggle stool, was something that many kids wanted to use.  I am going to work on getting more of those next year. 

Surprisingly, the bench-as-a-desk was very popular!  I thought that would be the one left out, but nope!  The kids in this class loved sitting on the floor.  At any given time, there were 4 or 5 on the carpet with clipboards, sitting on cushions at the bench and the kneeling at desks was really popular too.  I may lower another set of desks so that more of them can kneel.  I am also going to add some lap desks for kids that don't want to lay on the carpet have another option.

The exercise balls were popular, but I'm not sure for the right reasons. This was one space where I had to monitor more often.  It was very usual to have students bouncing on them, or rolling around on them, neither very conducive to good working time, especially when they are calling out "look at this!"  Was this because they didn't have enough time with them?  I guess we'll see next year. 

I have a list of things that I want to add for next year too.  I would like more wiggle stools, a couple more bath mats and some lap desks.  I am looking at these  from Ikea.  I have one at home and it's great.  I'm thinking about a yoga mat or two, but we'll see.

I also have to work on some organizational things for next year.  I had to move some things around and I have to look at where things need to be and what needs to go.  As a primary teacher, I have different centers I take out at different times of the year and as the need arises.  I can't keep them all in my room anymore, because my room just doesn't have the storage that I had at my old school.

So overall, I'm glad that I went ahead with the experiment.  The kids liked it and so did I.  It pulled me out of a system that I'd been using for about 4 years (and it worked) and made me rethink some things.  I like that.