Comments on: Stand, bounce, wriggle and learn

By: mlu

mlu — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:35:08 +0000

The leg jigglers will win.

Classrooms have seldom been great places for serious intellectual engagement, and rarely is that even the goal any more.

By: Ms. E

Ms. E — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 15:03:44 +0000

While there are limits to how much you can modify a classroom to make it better for one student before it becomes worse for another some changes can be better for everyone. I would love to see some research on the benefits of these modifications. Does anyone know where I can find some? I often let my students choose to stand or sit because I have found my elementary boys do better standing up. I am really curious about these balls though…I might have to try one myself.

By: Me

Me — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:06:20 +0000

*gasps in horrified disbelief and chucks an eraser at Lori*

By: dave

dave — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:01:18 +0000

i recall reading about some companies that have employees sitting at desks attached to a treadmill, so the person burns calories all day by walking while they work.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:46:16 +0000

I confess I’m a leg jiggler. It keeps me thin.

By: Rob Jacobs

Rob Jacobs — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:45:16 +0000

I just in a classroom today that is experimenting with stability balls. The kids loved it. They were all on task, all engaged, and all having a “ball.”

By: mollo

mollo — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:32:38 +0000

My husband teaches. His instructors said to bring a bag of toys, like those plastic insects given away at children’s parties to keep people busy (fidgeting) as he lectured and took questions. However, he teaches motorcycle classes and these are adults that they were recommending it for.

By: pm

pm — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:27:29 +0000

ricki,

Sure sounds like the classroom you mentioned was poorly designed. And the movement behind the article seems to be to design classrooms more conducive to learning. So at least on a purpose level you seem to be in agreement with them.

I don’t see any mention that the new furniture is the cause of distraction for other students. Perhaps they are just not mentioning that problem. Assuming that the student achievement really did improve I’m wondering if the new furniture actually reduced distractions. I’d guess that is one of the things they will attempt to study formally. Perhaps what they learn will change the commonly accepted meaning of distraction in that that the old furniture will be seen as a more significant distraction than students moving or fidgeting.

Most likely any lessons learned will have some variation and I suppose given any fixed situation schools will end up using the “average” successful approach. However, as you mentioned it would be better to try to structure the environment to meet all students needs. Which I’ve always found to be a reasonable argument for school choices of all kinds. And yes, as you mentioned with your comment on screaming, it would seem prudent to avoid anything that is detrimental to a significant number of students even if that only comprises a minority of them. But at least as I read the article, I don’t see any cause for concern along those lines.

By: Catch Thirty-Thr33

Catch Thirty-Thr33 — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:00:36 +0000

ricki would probably have killed me, as it seems that every single thing can and must conform to her. I am 100% restless and cannot sit still to save my life. Yet here I am in a graduate program.

I found the perfect outlet for this very early on. In middle school, I went to the school’s master clock, and synchronized my watch to it. Then I would play a game: how much of the campus could I roam, and then make it to class, without being tardy? This was enough to get it out of my system for awhile. I continued doing this in high school, and though college clearly is a little different in attendance policies, I still worked on a variation of this, as well as avoiding classes longer than 50 minutes whenever possible!

By: ricki

ricki — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:50:48 +0000

And also, if the leg-jiggler showed up after me, when class had already started, and I wanted to be POLITE and not get up and disrupt the class more…And yeah, there were times where the seismic activity was detectable almost everywhere in the classroom.

What about the kids who claim to learn best while singing loudly at the tops of their lungs? Should that be encouraged, too?

Sometimes, you have to accept that living in a community may mean restraining yourself a bit for the comfort of others. If they want to have separate classrooms for the kids who are driven insane by constant motion, fine. But making quiet kids work alongside noisy ones doesn’t seem fair to the quiet kids.