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Another area to focus on is: "the area of focus is something within your locus of control." "The area of focus is something you feel passionate about." "The area of focus is something you would like to change or improve." (p.43).

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When choosing an area of focus here are some things that should be considered.
"the area of focus should involve teaching and learning and should focus on your own practice" (p.

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Mills, G. (2014). Action research a guide for the teacher researcher, fifth edition. Pearson: New Jersey

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"The process of collaborative action research has five sequential steps:
1. Problem formulation
2. Data collection
3. Data analysis
4. Reporting of results
5. Action planning
(p.10)

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Sagor, R. (1992). How to conduct collaborative action research. ASCD: Alexandria, VA.

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Excerpts from class reading.

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Ideas to turn your classroom into a flexible seating room.

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A teachers experience with flexible seating.

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Article on flexible seating.

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Problem Solvers Now = Problem Solvers Later

I'm a firm believer in keeping the focus on what's really important: the students. If student motivation and higher engagement are truly what we want, we as teachers must adapt right along with our students in our classrooms.

To see that some classrooms look the same now as they did 70 years ago is shameful. The students we share our classrooms with don't know life without constant connectivity, Wi-Fi, and a global audience. Outside the windows of our classroom is a dynamic, fast-paced, and ever-changing world full of choices. How can we expect our students to solve problems and make choices independently if we constantly solve their problems and make their choices for them?

Our classroom environments should be conducive to open collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. This simply cannot be done when kids are sitting in rows of desks all day. If this seems right to you, consider involving your students in a classroom redesign project with the LAUNCH cycle design thinking described on A.J. Juliani's blog.

What the Research Says

Everything I do in my classroom is based on research and best practices for kids. Redesigning my classroom was not any different. I've found that some of the immediate benefits (PDF) of flexible seating include burning more calories, using up excess energy, improving metabolism, increased motivation and engagement, creating a better oxygen flow to the brain, and improving core strength and overall posture.

It's no surprise that physical activity is linked to higher academic performance, better health, and improved behavior. In fact, a paper by Matthew T. Mahar, et al. (PDF) says, "Simple in-class activities can boost performance. Studies suggest that children who participate in short bouts of physical activity within the classroom have more on-task behavior, with the best improvement seen in students who are least on-task initially."

If you're looking to convince your administrators that flexible seating is right for your students or even your entire school, my principal, Jason Markusen, has some interesting thoughts on this subject. You should also consult Erin Klein's article on brain-based classroom redesigns.

Classroom Redesign on a Budget

Redesigning an entire classroom doesn't have to be expensive, and you can get help from a DonorsChoose.org campaign. Sure, the Hokki stools in my classroom cost about $100 each, but other items range from free to about $30.

If you want to redesign your classroom on a budget, begin by purchasing some bath rugs or yoga mats, and raising a table to appropriate standing height using bed risers. Or simply take the legs off of a table and add some pillows or core discs for students to sit on. The crates pictured in my classroom cost around $3 each.

Most of the wall hangings and lamps were taken from my house, with the exception of frames from the Dollar Store. Parents are also a great resource for classroom donations. They often have money to help, but not time to give, so don't be afraid to ask.

Up Your Classroom Management

I have a strong conviction that simply swapping out desks for tables doesn't ensure higher motivation, engagement, or accountability. Redesigning a classroom or implementing unassigned flexible seating is a shift in both structure and teaching philosophy-an entire mindset shift. In fact, teachers need a keen intuition about where the students are working and their level of engagement at all times.

We must be willing to give up the power of the seating chart and truly hand over the responsibility of seating choices to our students. I've found that the more power I give up in our classroom, the more power I get back. I've also noticed that it helps my students become more self-aware about what types of seating and environment help them learn best. And they're empowered by the opportunity to have choices.

Other Considerations

We follow the Responsive Classroom approach. The supplies that the students contribute at Open House are put into a community supply crate and used throughout the year.

Each student's personal learning materials (math journals, notebooks, etc.) are housed in bins in the corner of our room. If you don't have this option, three-drawer stackers or crates of materials would be a solid substitute.

Be open to removing much of the furniture in your classroom. At the beginning of the year, I got rid of four tables, my huge teacher desk, a file cabinet, and 20 traditional chairs.

Our whole-group instruction still happens on the big rug in the middle of our classroom. This is where we spend much of our day.

Before allowing your students to self-select seats, I strongly suggest having them try all of the seating options for an entire day. They probably won't know where they learn best until they try all the options.

Students know that I reserve the right to move them at any time if they aren't fully engaged and able to work in their selected spot.

It's a good idea to have more seating combinations than students in your classroom. I never have disagreements between students about seating because I have far more options than students. However, if I did, I would settle it the same way that I'd settle an argument over any other material in our classroom.

I'm often asked, "Why should I do flexible seating this year if next year's teacher won't be doing it?" Here's my response: Teachers can never base what happens in our classroom this year on what next year's teacher may or may not do. If it's a best practice for our kids, do it now. Remember, our classrooms should be student-centered, not teacher-centered.

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Flexible Seating and Student-Centered Classroom Redesign

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I'm a firm believer in keeping the focus on what's really important: the students. If student motivation and higher engagement are truly what we want, we as teachers must adapt right along with our students in our classrooms. To see that some classrooms look the same now as they did 70 years ago is shameful.

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Helpful resources

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Annotated Bibliography

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Could giving students multiple work stations with different seating or standing options provide a better work environment?

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Action Research Project: Can the power of choice, in regards to seating, help students achieve more in the classroom?

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Great video for showing the power of flexible seating.

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Becky Fisher, the director of educational technology at Albemarle County Public Schools, is interested in learning about the thinking that drives student choice. "What we're really striving for are those choices that have a lot of thought behind them. We want kids to really be strategic about where they go," Fisher says.

She painted the picture of walking into a classroom and seeing kids:

Lying on the floor

Sitting at low tables on their knees

Standing up

When Fisher walks into a classroom, she asks the students the reasoning behind why they choose their particular learning space.

"Why are you standing right now?" she asks one TK student.

"Well," says the student, "we're using math manipulatives, and I move better when I'm standing up than when I'm sitting down."

Fisher once heard a kindergarten student articulate that she was a belly reader. She loved reading on the floor while lying on her belly, her class was reading, and that's why she was sprawled out on the floor. "That's awesome that, at five or six years old, you know your preferences," Fisher says. And that's critical to their work.

Justin, a seventh grade student from Sutherland Middle School, was also able to articulate his preferred learning environment. He chooses a table and chair, unlike the couch that many of his fellow students choose. "When I get down into a couch and am more comfortable, it's almost like it's a bit distracting. It's not exactly the environment I want to be working in, but for the other people, clearly they have their optimum working environments," Justin says.

Krishan, also in seventh grade at Sutherland, likes that his teacher gives him a choice in how he works. "Since she lets us choose, we ultimately choose what's best for us. We work better together and individually," Krishan says.

The First Step

According to Lisa Molinaro, the principal of Woodbrook Elementary School, the first thing that needs to happen for Albemarle teachers to successfully create a flexible classroom is:

The teacher must have a vision for his or her room.

The teacher must be willing to say, "I'm going to throw out some of this stuff. I don't need this traditional schooling equipment."

Design a Collaborative Learning Space

"We're really looking at how we support kids working collaboratively," Fisher says. "And we can't do it if we're isolated in rows and every kid is an island."

She believes that Albemarle classrooms work well with these design elements:

They have at least three kinds of classroom seating.

They use flexible bookshelves.

Instead of individual workspaces, they use large round or rectangular tables, or put four desks together to form a more collaborative space.

"You'll see flexible bookshelves that can be moved so that the room can be totally opened up -- or little nooks and crannies can be created -- so that everybody can see everybody, and we can participate as a community," Fisher says.

Create a Variety of Seating Options

"My kids love to be under things, behind things, around things," says Collins about her second grade classroom. "We have five-gallon buckets in my room that we sit on. We sit on crate seating that I made in my backyard out of a crate and some plywood and some foam. And I also just threw a lot of pillows on the floor."

For classroom seating, Collins also uses:

Fund Your Flexible Classroom: The DIY Approach

Teachers at Albemarle use these low- to no-cost strategies to furnish their classrooms:

1. Seasonal purchase: Teachers purchase furniture from college students the week that they leave campus after graduation or for the summer. This is the time when students often want to get rid of most of their belongings, and they will give them away or sell them at a cheap price.

2. Parent donations: Teachers ask parents for furniture. Cheryl Harris, a seventh grade language arts teacher at Sutherland, asks her parents to donate furniture at the beginning of the year. She started to build her collection by saying, "If any of you have a couch or a chair that you have just sitting around, the kids would like to read on it, and it could be a reading corner." The flow of donations grew and grew from there because parents wanted to contribute to their kids' learning environment.

3. Previously used: Teachers purchase items in good condition from a Salvation Army or Goodwill. Second-hand shops in upscale neighborhoods or college towns will usually house quality finds.

4. Crowdsourcing: Teachers set up a crowdfunding campaign, like DonorsChoose, Classwish, or GoFundMe, and have their students send their online campaign to family, friends, and parents to raise money for classroom furniture.

Fund Your Flexible Classroom: The District Approach

Over the past ten years, Albermarle district leadership has been very intentional in changing the physical nature of classrooms. Although not every classroom in its 26 schools has gotten a makeover, when the district budgets for a furniture-replacement cycle, there are some core pieces to redesigning a classroom. Before picking those core pieces, teachers need a vision for redesigning a classroom, and they should be willing to get rid of the traditional school furniture for more innovative pieces.

When comparing quotes for traditional and more innovative furniture, Fisher was delighted to learn that the cost is almost the same. "You pay roughly the same amount, and our durability has been good. There has been no reason to not go in that direction," she says.

When Albemarle "does" a room, you'll see:

Flexible seating: Albemarle provides at least three different choices of seating for students -- so you might see a stool, a beanbag, or chairs that look more traditional but allow kids to rock without tipping over.

Teacher stations, not teacher corners: Instead of a teacher corner taking up 25 percent of the classroom, teachers have workspaces similar to students' workspaces. The amount of real estate teachers now use is minimal, giving more space in the classroom for creating student corners, or the ability to move furniture around.

Flexible tables: Many tables have wheels on them, making it easy to reconfigure a room. Albemarle also chooses big tables, round or rectangular, to support collaborative work. Tables can be written on, as well as flipped up, converting them into whiteboards. They also come in different heights -- some are standing desks, others are more traditional heights, and some are low to the ground.

Evolving the classroom space to meet students' individual needs impacts how they learn, how they interact, and the entire classroom experience. Moran has noticed that when a learning space evolves, students' work improves immensely, their grades improve, and "just the conversations they have with each other are so invigorating to hear," Moran says.

Resources

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Flexible Seating Elevates Student Engagement

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Becky Fisher, the director of educational technology at Albemarle County Public Schools, is interested in learning about the thinking that drives student choice. "What we're really striving for are those choices that have a lot of thought behind them. We want kids to really be strategic about where they go," Fisher says.