Moving Classroom Spaces

I thought the discussion we had in class on how to best arrange classrooms was a very interesting one. I got to thinking that one need not necessarily have a singular arrangement for the classroom. With proper training, one could get the children to be able to move the tables or desks around for different situations.

I saw this fifth grade teacher in Bellingham do this once, she was in this tiny little portable of a tiny little school and she had 36 5th grade students (23 of them boys) and she had to be very creative with space. She had this set up though where students would move the desks around for different situations, the system was a little rough but it was near the beginning of the school year so I'm sure with some training they could do it really efficiently.

It reminded me of 18th and 19th century wooden naval vessels like in the movie Master and Commander with Russell Crowe. The sailors would sleep in hammocks on the gun deck, and when an enemy ship came into sight the officers would shout the command "Beat to quarters" and the crew would convert the whole area into a space of battle.

While students should not be asked to combat French privateers, I think the general idea is a sound one that can be applied in the classroom. One can have different table arrangements the children know, like one that's in a horseshoe shape, one that's in a circle, one that's in different table groups so small groups can collaborate, or stack the tables around the edge if the entire floor space is needed.

It would require some refinement but it could create opportunities that a traditional static classroom may not.