Desks versus Tables

When I first came into my class room it was full of desks. Desks for my students. This seemed reasonable to me. One of my supervisors suggested that I try tables. Truth be told, I was kind of excited by the idea. It seemed it would be nice to have all my lovely students sitting around tables, collaboratively working diligently on whatever tasks were necessary in order to engage their education. 

It's been about 10 weeks now that I've been with the tables. Make no mistake, I have not been the best at managing the misbehavior of my students (the topic of a different post, yet written). That said, it occurs to me that having my students sit at tables makes it very easy for my students to be social when they ought to be listening. If I was better at keeping their attention, the tables would be great. As is, the tables make my classroom environment rather not conducive to ordered, focused learning. 

And that's what I have to say about that, at least for the time being.