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.