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Most of the teachers like to arrange the seating arrangement. The aim is only one which is to make sure all the students focus and understand what is going on in class. Even no arrangement is perfect but yet it helps. As a teacher in lower primary in one of the international school in Indonesia, I do like to arrange my students’ seats. With English as a daily basis language and students are from different Asia countries with mixed language ability, seating arrangement is one of the key. For daily, I prefer my students to seat in group of 3 or 4. It will be mixed between the one who are good enough in academics and who are weak, well behaved and move and talk a lot, talkative and timid one. I keep changing the sitting partners in every term. Why do I like this seating arrangement? Here are the reasons. Firstly, by mixing the different abilities of students in terms of academics and language, it gives two ways of learning for both strong and weak students. It helps the teacher too. For the strong one, they can be one on one mentor for their friends in group. They can explain and help them. In other hand, weak students who are mostly shy to ask the teacher, by having strong student who sit with them, they can ask and learn from their friends easily. Indirectly, it encourages the weak students to learn and speak more. Example, I have one Korean girl who is shy. She does not want to talk as she thinks that her English is not good enough. In previous year, she always sat with a Korean boy who speaks English well and he always helps her by translating in Korean. By mixing and separate them, in few weeks, she started to speak English by herself. She dares to ask questions, study harder and her English is improving. Secondly, it lowers the noisiness and increases the disciplines in classroom. The class will be conducted more efficient. In my observation, with this seating arrangement, most of the time students will pay more attention when I deliver the lessons. It happens because not all the students like to talk and being busy body. The smooth delivery will never happen if I do not arrange the sitting. Students will prefer to sit with their best friends or whom they can talk. Definitely, the class will be so noisy and inefficient. Lastly, by this kind of seating arrangement, the students are able to learn how to be emphatic, increase their leadership skill and respect other cultures. For me, education is not only about the academic but also the understanding the good behavior and how to apply it. Example, I used to have an Indonesian student who did not like Indian. It was not sound right for me as he tried to convince her friends not to be friend with my Indian student. I rolled the seat and put them together. On first day, she cried dramatically but slowly they started to talk and they became friend until now. In conclusion, the seating arrangement is one of the key for teacher to teach and deliver the lesson. By arrange the students’ seats with mixed abilities and behavior will help you to make the students to understand more by one on one teaching done by strong student, smooth and efficient in delivering a lesson and help the students to have better behaviors.
