Daniel Hanson

Posted on 10/08/11

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Hello, everyone!

I feel embarrassed admitting this, but several
years of teacher, I still don¡¦t know when I should be
letting students move around and when not to. I teach high
school Spanish and my class does a lot of written work with
the textbook. So, some students want to move around to work
with others (their friends and buddies, sometimes their
very close friends ļ). Some do it for the social element
mainly. I remember in high school and I subbed in
classrooms where teachers were okay with students moving
around (like in math classes) and sitting with classmates
to work on stuff. On the one hand, I can see how students
like moving around because they want to socialize while
they work. However, some students aren¡¦t mature enough to
work while they socialize and just end up socialize and
sometimes getting rowdy. These same individuals usually
take longer to finish and are usually waiting for their
classmates to finish the work so they can copy. Should I
just flat out tell them they can¡¦t move around during the
class period? Do I just deny moving privileges from certain
students, causing some to complain that that¡¦s not far that
some students get to move around and they don¡¦t?

I seriously cannot make up my mind on what my stance should
be. Right now, I feel like some students feel like they
have control over where they can sit in class during class
work when ultimately, I should be the one with the last say
as to where people can and cannot sit during class.
(Obviously, I will have to give out detentions for students
talking across the classroom because they can¡¦t go sit by
their buddies.)

Please share your thoughts.

Confused,
Daniel Hanson
Public High School Spanish Teacher
Atwater, California, USA

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