Does where you sit matter?

WHERE YOU SIT MATTERS!

Absolutely it does. There are several scenarios that are interesting to me that I could unpack but for now let's discuss the good old debate of seating arrangements in classrooms - rows verses group layouts.

I strongly believe that if you want students to trust each other, share their knowledge and support each other in their learning one of the key ingredients is to ensure that the tables are set up to support this. That and creating the norm that seating arrangements change every few weeks, generally coinciding with the units being taught.

As someone who has taught across Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary I can confirm that this becomes challenging at secondary. And not because students don't want this but rather it seems that teachers prefer this arrangement.

In my experience, mainly through observations of many classes across the region, the row arrangement creates division, isolation and is a way to deliver content in a way to control the class where you are essentially the guest speaker and contribution is low.

Group arrangements on the other hand enforces 'we are a community', 'we can grow and learn together'. It is through group seating arrangements that we develop respect, appreciate differences, and learn new ways of working together. 

I'm curious to why some teachers feel that group seating arrangements are not conducive to learning effectively.

What do you prefer and why?

Community Engagement

COVID-19 is presenting us with an opportunity to be creative on how we bring our community together.

At Mentone Girls’ Grammar School the aim of the focused COVID-19 mitigation plan was to increase the capability of individuals and teams in a matter of a few weeks to develop and sustain the cultural conditions, structures and processes that support a high performance remote learning culture within our school community.

Staff are modelling and engaging in learning and teaching behaviours that support a culture of continuous improvement and engagement. The community is digging deep to ensure that students, parents and their colleagues are keeping safe and well-motivated to explore new ways of learning and communities of practices. Real Learning is taking place in innovative ways and has engaged our community in a way that we are all looking out for each other. 

With the onset of COVID in 2020 I focused on mobilising the Mentone Girls’ Grammar community. I did this in the  way of Professional Learning Programs for staff and community webinars and events for students and parents.  Webinars and events were deliberately designed to bring together the community during a time of real isolation.  New teaching strategies and tools have been implemented to enable students to engage in learning online. We are making use of Adobe SPARK to design programs of learning that incorporate the voices of our students and bring about community engagement. 

I was invited to present at the Adobe Inject Creativity Live show to discuss how Mentone Girls’ Grammar School has been making use of Adobe during the unexpected closures in response to COVID-19. The episode below is just the introductory to the session that took place afterwards.