The following story was published in Issue 1 of The Paolite, 2017

Biology and anatomy teacher Laurie Jo Andry’s classroom has a whole new layout this year. Toward the end of last school year, Andry took donations of furniture no one wanted to transform her science lab from traditional to inviting.

After talking the idea over with Principal Chad Johnson, she waited for the project to begin. The original tables and chairs in her room were removed, and donated items were put into place. Andry recalls coming into her classroom one day excited to see her new arrangement.

“I wanted to do something for the students,” said Andry.

Andry got her idea from teacher blogs online. The blogs she saw did not have a science room, but eventually she found a high school science teacher who set up flexible seating for her students. Though the online seating arrangements had labs in the back, Andry was prepared to take advantage of what she already had.

New curriculum for Andry’s classes makes flexible seating easier for students. A lot of it involves group work, which makes students have to move around the room and interact with others. With the original tables and chairs, she would not have enough seats for everyone. It was also uncomfortable and harder to do the group work.

“The students sit around in uncomfortable chairs all day long without brain breaks. Unfortunately, that’s not how brains work,” said Andry.

Andry claimed the teacher’s room she found looked really cool, but her room was “ugly”. Most of the donated seats are completely different colors. Although she claims not to be a very color-coordinated type of person, she still believes her room now looks a lot better than before.

In the future, she plans to get new material for the seats. She would like to get fabric to sew on top of some furniture to make them more colorful and enjoyable. Andry would like some help from any student at Paoli who is willing to spend time to sew the material for her.

“I don’t want someone who says they will help, but they end up just stapling the fabric down,” said Andry.

Andry is also concerned about her skeleton, Mr. Bone-Jangles. She uses it for her anatomy and physiology classes to help teach about the human body. She is on the lookout for some costumes to make Mr. Bone-Jangles more interesting for her classes, such as a Halloween costume for October, some variation of a Valentine’s Day outfit, and anything else that Mr. Bone-Jangles can wear. Come to room 121 if you have any outfits or would like to help Andry out.

“I did have a lot of fun with this project. It’s something new for the students, and it’s definitely something I have to continue to work with,” said Andry.

Story by Kinley Block