Survival of the Sittest

If you ever want to instigate a fight among a flock of teachers, simply ask their thoughts about seating charts.

Should we let the students pick their own seats?  Should we sit them alphabetically?  When should we change the seating chart?  Should we sit them boy/girl?  Oh, the controversy!

Based on a rather unscientific method and unsound statistics, I have stumbled across a solution:

1. At the beginning, sit students alphabetically.  Done!
2. Move talkative students as needed.
3. Move students at their request, if you can.

My master teacher and I were discussing the seating chart.  We have found that there are several knots of students that may benefit from a seat rearrangement.  This led us to a bigger question of moving all of the students.  I asked whether the students even wanted to move.  Neither of us had ever considered this at all.  So, in each class, we put it to a vote.  

The overwhelming majority of students wanted to keep their seats.  Only two or three in each class said they wanted to change.  I was surprised at this response, but when I thought about my own preferences, it made sense.

So, we saved a great deal of time and headache by moving only a few students around.  The students are happy, we're happy, and classroom homeostasis was achieved.