Today was our first day back to school for the spring semester.
I felt like I never left.
Except, for the wave of fresh faces and my renewed energy.
I don't want to jinx anything but this feels like a great group of students.
If only I could bottle this feeling for later when they become a different less amazing version of themselves.
One of the most AMAZING things about teaching a semester elective class is getting to redo everything right after the holidays.
One of the scariest things about teaching a semester elective class is not getting the ability to look at your new roster until 7:00 this morning.
I tried to keep a positive mind set about not knowing how many students I would be having or who I would be teaching.
A new teacher texted me asking when we would have access to our rosters, since seating charts were due the last day of the winter semester, makes sense. I kindly told her to not expect them until the first day of the semester.
This made me think about how I do seating charts. Maybe its not new or revolutionary, but it certainly works for me.
I stand at the door and greet each student, they pull a stick which are pre-numbered with all of my computer numbers, I write the number next to there name.
Yippee! Seating chart done!
I figure this won't work for everyone, probably not lower grade levels but this works amazing with middle schoolers. I have found that middle schoolers don't fight this system, as its all done by chance and its not me forcing them to sit somewhere. I think back to the countless amount of class time I wasted trying to convince students to get back in their assigned seats or not lie about their names, and I shake my head at my novice self.
During the second six weeks I allow most of my classes to choose partners/seats based on if they have an A or not. A students can make a suggestion of a partner they would like and then I make a seating chart based on their suggestions.
Maybe it won't work for everyone, maybe it will inspire a bit of a change. How do you design seating charts for middle schoolers/upper grades?
- The Babbling Box!
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