Best way to arrange your classroom desks for success!
by Ron McDevittWhat is the best way to arrange your desks for the best classroom management.
When I first started teaching I didn't give any thought to the arrangement of desks. I had too much on my plate, was overwhelmed and desk arrangement was the farthest thing from my mind. Come to find out it is very important and another piece of the puzzle to having an effective classroom management plan.
Why is desk arrangement in your classroom so important?
According to many experts proper desk arrangement allows you to easily get around your classroom. Moving about your classroom without obstruction is key to keeping kids working and behaving.
Think about a student that sees you on the other side of a classroom trapped in the corner with no possible way of a quick escape.
On the other hand if you see a student who either needs help or is acting inappropriately and you are trapped then what can you do?
Well you can either shout across the room (not a good idea), play Carl Lewis and get a running start to hurdle the desks or you can pack your lunch for the long journey around the ensuing obstacle field and work your way over to the student.
However, given some thought you may be able to arrange your desks so that you can get to most of your students quickly and easily.
The experts suggest that you arrange your desks so that you never end up on the outside of the circle. In other words you can stay on the inside of the perimeter of your desks and easily walk to all students unobstructed and never have any student more than three desks away from you. Here is a picture from Lou Anne Johnson's book Teaching Outside The Box where she describes proper desk arrangement. Notice that you never have to go on the outside of the circle and can easily get to students.
Fred Jones who wrote the book Teaching Tools also goes into great detail about the importance of desk arrangement as a critical part of classroom management. Here are just a few pictures from his book describing the same concept and principles.
As you can see in both of these experts examples you can move around freely and get to students easily.
O.K. I hear what you are saying "my classroom is not shaped like those". Hey, I can relate. My classroom doesn't look like these either. I have been teaching in a classroom shaped like a long narrow cave for years. Whoever designed my classroom was obviously more concerned with cost then creating a classroom environment conducive to learning and classroom management. So what to do? Take the principles of the ideal shape and bring them into your classroom as best you can. I had to defy the architectural design of my classroom to have any hope of incorporating some of these principles. My classroom is rectangular and the overhead screen and whiteboards are located on the long side of the rectangle. In this layout I could not find any desk arrangement that allowed me to get to the students easily while staying on the inside perimeter.
I therefore took down my overhead screen and rearranged my classroom to face the short side of the rectangle. This allowed me to get to every student easily and no student is farther than three desks away from me when I am standing at their row. It is not the perfect design but one that works best given the design I have.
Try many different designs until you find one that works best for you. Keep in mind the principles outlined by our experts and you will have an effectively run classroom in no time.
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Have a great school year!
