3U: The Seating Plan

In most standard classrooms you'll find the desks in neat rows all facing the blackboard. I've never been a big fan of that arrangement, so last week I pushed the desks together into groups of 5. In university we were taught how to create different seating plans according to what it is you want to achieve in your class. There's a million different possibilities but every good teacher knows that these things have to be well thought out. From J.K. to Grade 12, seating should be based on diagnostic assessments, special needs, parent recommendations and blah blah blah. Too much to think about! I decided to lump everything together and I arranged students so that each group had a balance of strong and weak students, a balance of boys and girls, and a balance of loudmouths and mice. And because I'm nice (or at least like to think so), I did this all the while trying to keep friends with friends so that my classroom could actually be an enjoyable place for my students to learn.

They love it.
They love it too much.
Waaayyy too much.

Some of the groups are taking the whole "group" thing a little too far:

I have one group who has created a secret handshake. Now that's all lovely and elementaryschoolish, but their handshake has vulgar sexual connotations. They tell me it doesn't but I know it does. Ms. C isn't so dumb.

I have a group who a secret password. I don't know what it is. I have a feeling I don't want to know (see reasons with group mentioned above).

I have two groups who've declared themselves "enemies." In the spirit of classroom war tactics, they've agreed that no member from the opposing group may cross the invisible line from the teacher's desk to the window - this is the line that separates the two groups. I'm not sure exactly what happens if you accidentally cross the line, again, I'm not sure that I want to know.

I have another group who is organizing classroom "potlucks" within themselves:
Student1: "I'll bring cookies"
Student2: "I'll bring chips"
Student3: "I'll bring candy"
Student4: "I'll bring napkins"
Student5: "I'll bring my leftover lunch" Seriously! You should have seen the spread they had today. If things get out of hand I might have to re-think my food-allowed-in-class-if-you-think-you're-dying-from hunger rule. But then again, they did offer me some tempting bites. Which I accepted.

Due to a slight excess of boys in one 3U class, I have one group of all boys. They sit there and talk about girls.

Due to a slight excess of girls in the other 3U class, I have one group of all girls. They sit there and talk about boys.

I also have a rotating student. This is in my class of 31. Because the student is the odd one out, it's that student's duty to move up her desk to a new group of 5 everyday.

I have one deskless student. He was a late addition to my class so we're still awaiting delivery of a new desk.

I have one student who loves sitting on the floor. Everyday I have to remind that student to go join his group. This is not a zoo, we sit in chairs!

I don't want to change the room back to the original plan because I love having all the space to walk around and it makes our already large classroom look even more spacious. The students actually get so much more work done this way, they don't have to twist and turn all over the place to chat and I don't have to squeeze through the aisles to take my random walks. However, I can't help but feel that all this is kinda weird. I'm not complaining, it's working out really well, but I don't think I ever experienced these things during my own high school years. Maybe it's the group thing? I always had rows in English class. Anyone else?

P.S If you have no idea what I'm talking about and don't think creating a seating plan can be that hard then read THIS.