Observations from Last Year
My wife and I have been doing CrossFit for about six years. During that time we learned about a project that mobility guru Kelly Starrett was working on. He started a nonprofit organization standupkids.org that promotes standing classrooms. My wife said to me why don’t you see if you can give that a try and see if it would have a positive effect on your students. So I went to my principal and talked to her about it. I thought for sure she’d look at me like I was crazy and tell me that’s silly – we’ll have all sorts of complaints from parents and students. But, on the contrary, she was excited about what she heard and said go ahead, let’s try it. She found a few hundred bucks in her budget to help with the cost. I thought a few hundred bucks isn’t going to do it since each standing desk cost several hundred dollars. But my assistant principal had an idea. Let’s buy $8 IKEA end tables and put them on top of your existing tables. So we bought 45 of them. I cut some of them down to heights for the students who aren’t that tall and my standing classroom was ready.
At the end of the school year I had my students write a paragraph about what they liked and did not like about the standing classroom. The responses were overwhelmingly positive.
Here are some comments that speak about the learning benefits:
- It made it easier to pay attention and stay on task.
- When it came time to take a group quiz or work on classwork, it made it easier to move around the classroom and get help from other students.
- When we went back to sitting for a week I noticed a decline in my attention span and performance.
- I was more awake when standing and better able to take notes.
- Standing made me more alert.
- When I needed help standing made it easier to collaborate with classmates.
- Standing increased my focus on the class, making it easier to ignore distractions such as food or technology.
- I wish all of my classes were standing because I can get more done.
- Standing keeps students alert and energized, which can invoke inquisitive questions.
- I couldn’t conceal my phone in my lap when I was standing.
- I was more involved in class.
- The classroom was quieter when we were standing.
- It was way easier to get help from you because you could stand at my table and look at me eye to eye when you explained things.
- I performed better on tests.
Here are some comments that speak about the physical benefits:
- My back and shoulders felt better.
- I felt it strengthened my legs, core, and back. And it built mental toughness.
- My back felt good because I wasn’t hunched over in a chair all day.
- It forced me to have better posture.
- It helped me in my swim meets.
- My legs never fell asleep while standing, but they do when I sit.
- It made me less sleepy to stand.
- Having a standing classroom taught me not to slouch, to stand up straight.
- Standing was beneficial for my many hip injuries. Constantly sitting in school all day would make my hips hurt.
My favorite response:
There was one very important observation that was not mentioned in any of the student responses but I feel it’s important. Some students have a hard time sitting still in a traditional classroom. The standing classroom allows these students to burn off some of their energy by pacing back and forth in front of their tables. I had two autistic students who were immensely helped because they were able to pace and not forced to be still.
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