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RSSThursday, August 11, 2011
Classroom Management Tip: Assigning Seats
How do you assign seats for the new year? Here is how I do it...
The trick is - know the colors that are right in front of you to give to your students that may need you more often for one reason or another. Also have the tickets marked with male or female - this way you can create a boy/girl seating arrangement that can limit visiting.
This set up also makes it seem random to the kids - so it doesn't look like you are separating or placing anyone - even if you are.
I usually look over my class list, determine how many tables this class needs and make sure students are distributed evenly. I try not to have any student sitting alone - and I try to keep the back tables clear for supplies - or for a student who may need to sit or work alone.
Then I will take roll (which I only do on the first day just to make sure I have a correct list, correct name pronunciation or nicknames). As I take roll I enter the names on a seating chart that I use all year - always available for me to learn names and for subs to call names.
I was thinking of getting away from using the palettes attached with contact paper on the table this year because:
1. I am getting tired of looking at them after using them for 3 years.
2. The students mindlessly pick them off - no matter how many times I tell them not to!
3. They get ratty looking so quickly - I usually repalce them each quarter.
I love the idea of hanging table IDs from the ceiling but I don't think our fire marshall will allow it!
How do you do it?
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Mine are very similar to yours (sans the numbers). I have made crayons, paint brushes, paint splotches...and a few more I cannot remember. I put them on the end of the table last year and they stayed on all year! Only 2 to pick at them (LOL)!
Ha! I just made mine look exactly like yours! I know that the picking will drive me crazy, because they picked last year at the crayons I put down for color. I loved this because it assigns the seat number as well as the table. I've had seats assigned to artists based on signs hanging over the table that worked fine, too, but I definitely like having each seat assigned. I guess you could put numbers on the backs of chairs, then something hanging?
I use a sharpie to actually write a number at the edge of the table. I write that number in my assignment book. Last year I never changed seats. . . I changed a seat here and there then when we got just the right mix I left it. They only come to art once a week. I wrote the number on chairs one year but they get moved around, the tables get wiped and destroy anything on them. I hang the table color above the table so I can refer to the table as blue table etc.
I use table colors but don't assign specific seats. I used to use contact paper on the table but of course it got picked off, so I cut a circle template and SPRAY PAINTED a colored circle on each table and it has lasted 2 years so far! I posted about it here: http://plbrown.blogspot.com/2010/08/colors-for-my-tables-and-more-of-my.html
I spray painted pop sticks to match, and hand them out at the door, so it changes up the seating for every art class. I generally only do this through 3rd grade; as the kids get older I like to let them decide who to sit with, unless there's problems.
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