Teachers vs. desks: a ceaseless struggle

As social studies teacher George Vlasits ponders how he should arrange the desks in his classroom, he must force himself to be selfish. He teaches two AP U.S. History classes in room 264 and needs to have all students facing him and paying attention to him for his lectures to be effective. But social studies teacher Todd Stephens, who shares room 264 with Vlasits, needs to have students working in groups. Stephens can spare a few students facing away from him as long as the students' desks are cloistered together, but not Vlasits.

Vlasits and Stephens compromise. With 28 desks, they group together seven islands with four desks comprising each island. They arrange the islands so that no student is facing away from the teacher, but to no avail, the back of the room becomes crowded and students complain in another episode in the never-ending struggle between teachers, students and unwieldy desks. Seating and desk arrangements affect not only a classroom's comfort level, but also the level of communication between teachers and students as well as student safety.

Islands or U-Shapes?

Most teachers consider seating and desk arrangements an important tool, arranging desks in a classroom depending on their teaching style and subject taught. A teacher who needs to do nothing but lecture, for example, might arrange the desks in rows with two students paired together to encourage them to sometimes work together. A teacher who needs students to work in groups or participate in independent classroom discussions will organize desks into islands. A teacher who wants students to participate in classroom discussions moderated by the teacher will organize desks into one or more U's surrounding the teacher. The seating process may seem simple at first but it can often be one of the most irksome parts of teaching.

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While teachers decide the formation of desks, where individual students sit depends more on the students themselves. Teachers often try to distribute talkative and quiet students evenly throughout the classroom, but Vlasits believes a teacher can do little if the whole class is naturally talkative. "If you separate friends in a talkative class, they'll just make new friends wherever they are," he says.

In portable #2, social studies teacher James Mogge divides his students' desks into two sets of rows with each set of desks facing the other. Mogge believes that this arrangement encourages the students to pay more attention to him if he sits between the two sets. This arrangement, in which the students face one another, is also advantageous during classroom discussions or debates. Mogge can also keep a better eye on his students with this organization. Despite its advantages, Mogge acknowledges that debates and discussions often get out of hand in overpopulated or talkative classes with this seating arrangement. In a very talkative class, Mogge will try to shift individual desks farther away from each other, but he knows he is fighting a losing battle.

English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher Kristen Mena prefers the desks in her classroom, room 154, arranged in U shapes; she feels that this arrangement not only encourages students to communicate with each other, but also enables her to move throughout the classroom. "It's important that students interact with each other and that I'm able to interact with them as well," she says. Mena says that engaging students is difficult despite the seating arrangement when there are too many students in one class because so many students move around, making it easier to overlook students who may be struggling or misbehaving.

Science classes usually require islands of large black-topped tables spread throughout the classroom to make laboratory activities possible, according to science teacher Summer Roark. With desks in a science class, seating arrangements need to be carefully considered to form large aisles for students to easily pass through, which prevent traffic jams or accidents during labs.

Structural problems and poor desk design

The size and shape of the desks and the classrooms themselves plague teachers as much as the way in which desks are arranged. Vlasits and other teachers have been frustrated by the lack of appropriate desks available at Blair. In 1998, the school ordered large trapezoid tables (traps) designed to accommodate three students at once. The traps would have been useful in social studies and English classes that require students to work with one another in addition to listening to lectures. But, the traps were effective only if combined to form giant hexagons too large for most of Blair's undersized classrooms.

The size of Blair's classrooms and the sheer number of students that have attended school have presented seating difficulties. According to Vlasits, in an effort to lower cost, schools built in the last 10 to15 years have had smaller classrooms. The overpopulation problems of 2003-2004, when enrollment swelled to nearly 3,300 students, presented new seating dilemmas, as teachers struggled to make classrooms navigable while accommodating a higher number of desks than usual. "It is a pain sometimes," says Vlasits.

Successful seating arrangements help to ensure a good learning environment for students and teachers arrange their desks in accordance to their particular teaching style or in order to accommodate the needs of their course. Whether because of overpopulation or awkwardly designed trapezoid tables or classrooms, teachers may find this part of their job the most bothersome and difficult of all. While the battle between teachers and desks continues, Vlasits asks for patience from his students. "A good seating arrangement can make a big difference," he says. "It usually takes more than one try to get things right."