A new seating style spreading across Orange County is giving kids the freedom to wiggle, stretch and sprawl as they learn at school – and the flexibility is having a positive impact on their focus, teachers say.

Flexible seating – adjustable desks, wobble-friendly stools, bouncy balls and yoga mats – is being sought for classrooms throughout the county. Teachers at several schools are raising money on their own to convert classrooms – either through traditional means such as fundraising with parents and hitting up local sales, or through online crowdfunding.

On DonorsChoose.org, dozens of teachers across Orange County are raising money to purchase more seating options than the regular chair; donation requests range from a couple hundred dollars to more than $1,000.

Kindergartener Lydia Park works on writing her ABCs while sitting on a ball as her chair at Laurel Elementary Magnet School in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. The schools classrooms are equipped with a flexible seating design. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Students have their pick from different heights in tables and different types of chairs at Laurel Elementary Magnet School in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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Zachary Zadah, front, and Landon Marques work in low chairs in Jackie Deano’s flexible seating-equipped classroom at Glenknoll Elementary School. (By Jonathan Winslow, staff)

Jackie Deano teaches Kiyone Tsuchida, left, and Jaylynn Traver while they do their classwork in two different seating options available in Deano’s flexible seating-equipped classroom at Glenknoll Elementary School. (By Jonathan Winslow, staff)

Fourth grader Stormy Waters works on her computer while sitting under her desk at Laurel Elementary Magnet School in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. The school’s classrooms are equipped with a flexible seating design. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)



Students have their pick from different heights in tables and different types of chairs at Laurel Elementary Magnet School in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Students work together with four used together decks which are part of Laurel Elementary Magnet School’s new flexible seating in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Students work on their projects in the hallway on flexible seating at Laurel Elementary Magnet School in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Fourth grader Charis Winn, takes advantage of the flexible seating at Laurel Elementary Magnet School while working on her computer on the ground in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Donovan Harman works in one of the different types of chairs available in Jackie Deano’s flexible seating-equipped classroom at Glenknoll Elementary School. (By Jonathan Winslow, staff)



Kindergarteners sit on different styles of chairs at Laurel Elementary Magnet School in Brea, on Thursday, September 28, 2017. (Photo by Nick Agro, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Jaclyn Deano worked with parents and paid out of pocket to outfit her second-grade Glenknoll Elementary classroom in Yorba Linda with crates, lounging chairs, yoga balls, floor cushions and even an office chair. For more expensive items – such as wobble stools costing $50 each and more yoga balls at $15 each – she’s turned to DonorsChoose.

Gavin Esqueda, one of Deano’s students, said being able to wiggle around has helped him in subjects he once struggled in. Math use to be his least favorite subject, but the problems don’t seem as bad now that he’s found a way to focus, he said.

“Let’s say I’m on a hard problem and I’m sitting on the exercise ball. When I get stressed, I can just bounce and move all the stress out of my body to get calm, then figure it out,” he said.

Deano’s students naturally moved from seat to seat as they tackled different projects throughout a recent morning. Their work and chairs changed, but their focus remained steady throughout.

“I’ve noticed a huge change in their attention – not only how long they can pay attention, but how well they’re focused,” Deano said. “They’re getting to move, which kids need. They have so much energy, they need time to move. You can’t sit them still for a super long time and expect them to be on task the whole time.”

Tim Green, professor of elementary and bilingual education at Cal State Fullerton, said the popularity of flexible seating has surged in recent years owing to positive results for students and a fluid nature that compliments the modern classroom.

“If you think about the last few years, more and more physical ed is being cut out of elementary schools. That ability to have your kids move around and not just sit and be sedentary is an advantage,” Green said.

Flexible seating lends itself especially well to group work, which is much more common in classrooms now than it was decades ago. As students work in shared spaces, the teacher is free to create learning opportunities in all corners of the class, rather than just at the front.

“Think back to when we were in school – desks were in rows and we were all doing the same thing at the same time. The teacher may be the focal point up at the front of the classroom,” Green said. “Now, there may not be a front of the classroom. The teacher, with this kind of flexible design, will be wandering around the class. There could be a teacher station in different spots around the room.”

For all of its possible benefits, Green said one of the biggest detriments to flexible seating isn’t in its use, but its cost. Basic sets of seating options to furnish a classroom average several hundred dollars – money teachers typically have had to come up with on their own.

That might be changing, Green said.

As flexible seating becomes accepted, he said more schools are taking advantage of major remodels to standardize the format in their classrooms. Some cases of this can already be seen in Orange County.

The Brea Olinda Unified School District took the opportunity to bring in flexible seating for all its classrooms when Laurel Elementary School was re-imagined last year as Laurel Elementary Magnet School of Innovation and Career Exploration.

“Particularly at an elementary school, we always have kids who struggle with the sit-in-the-box or row kind of mentality,” Principal Heather Bojorquez said. “Sometimes, kids learn best sitting in a desk. Other kids learn best by standing, or having the option to sit on the floor.”

Bojorquez said giving students the freedom to sit how they want to has made a big difference for more fidgety students and those with attention deficit disorders. Students who would normally lose focus fidgeting in a stiff desk can now wiggle on a wobbly stool, dangle their legs from an elevated chair or bounce on a ball, naturally working out their excess energy while staying focused on the work in front of them, she said.

In one Laurel classroom, tables are spread wide through the classroom – students work at triangular desks pushed together to streamline group projects, while others prepare presentations in the hallway. Elizabeth Chang, a fourth- and fifth-grade combo teacher, moved fluidly between the hallway and the classroom, helping the two grades with their work.

“I don’t ever want to go back to how it was with just the straight tables and rows,” Chang said. “It was hard to get around, especially with the class sizes. It just ends up being more desks in the same space.”

In a neighboring room, students worked diligently in their own way – some sprawled out on the ground, others stood at elevated desks, one little girl was squirreled away underneath a desk, sitting cross-legged with her laptop.

Jayme Barr, an educational specialist at Laurel, works with children who have special needs and said he’s seen students get much more excited about getting their work done when given the freedom to sit however they want.

“A lot of the students I work with have academic, behavior or even focus issues. With the transition to this, I’m seeing more work output from this environment,” Barr said. “They take ownership and like moving around the room, where before you can’t have that.”

Students at Laurel are free to choose their favorite style of seating and even change it in the middle of class – they’re all trained on how to use each option and how to switch without causing a distraction.

Fifth-grader Matthias Mynes said working either in groups or alone ends up being much more comfortable when students aren’t all stuck in rows.

“You just have a lot more room, I think it’s awesome,” Matthias said. “My favorite type of chair is the cube chair. I like it because it’s squishy and bouncy.”

There was a bit of an adjustment period where both Deano and her students had to learn to make the best of their new class set-up, but making the switch quickly paid off, Deano said.

“As a teacher, it takes a bit of getting used to. It’s a big adjustment, classroom management wise. In the end, though, it’s all worth it,” she said. “Watching my students sit in their regular chairs, most of them were leaning back or putting their feet up. I was constantly telling them to sit properly in their seats. I realized that what’s comfortable for one person isn’t necessarily comfortable for another.”