Fishbowl Seating Quick Switch

So I decided on a fishbowl. Moreover, I decided on three sets of fishbowl arrangements.

The class “bowl” looks roughly like the diagram above, with my SMARTboard at the bottom. My combo class will mostly be arranged with Spanish 2 in the blue, 3 in the purple. I’ll also have a scrambled arrangement that will probably involve a 2 and a 3 at every other table. Creative Writing will ALMOST fit in the inner ring, but I will have to get a little…well, you know.

My piéce de resistance, though, is the triple plan for the class of 22:

Configuration 1: Pez-pecera–default “fish” in the middle, “bowl” on the outside. The peces will do the OWL circle first, with one swing pez I’ll call the tiburón, who will close the circle during OWL time.

Configuration 2: Pecera-pez–inverse fishbowl (he who was once the bowl becomes the fish!) I will simply call out “Pecera-pez” or pull up a SMART slide with the written cue to indicate switch time, and everyone will go to their OTHER designated seat! (This is one thing PowerSchool is pretty handy for.) I’m thinking of making it a sort of duck-duck-goose, roundabout switch to make sure traffic flows, maybe play some “Vìbora de la mar” or other coro hit in between for travel music.

Configuration 3: Grupos. I have not designed this chart yet, because I think I’m going to have them choose their PBL project groups based on their desired area of expertise, but the shape of it will basically mean smashing one pez table with one pecera table and crowding 3-5 around the pod.

I know there are those who believe that seating charts steal student empowerment, but frankly, I’ve got a job to do, and the smoother I can make transitions (and easier I can make things like attendance taking for myself), the better I can do that job.