Managing Various Aspects in Teaching

35 However, when they were really uncontrolled and difficult to manage, I asked them to sit in different places. Excerpt 12 Participant B had a different strategy in dealing with students’ seating arrangement. Usually, the seating arrangement of her class was a U shape. She stated that this kind of shape was not suitable for learning process. It was because in her class, the U shape did not only consist of one line. There were three other separate lines behind the first U line. As the result, the students who sat in those lines could not be reached by the teacher and tended to make noise. To overcome this situation, she arranged the seats in four rows one day before the meeting as mentioned in Excerpt 13. So, one day before I taught, my friends and I arranged the seats to become a regular position, which consisted of four rows. Excerpt 13 Furthermore, she prepared the seating lotteries for the students so that they could mingle as mentioned in Excerpt 14. It was not that easy, since sometimes some students did not want to sit based on the lottery. Hence, she would ask the students to take another lottery if they really did not want to sit based on the previous lottery. When I had already arranged the seats, then I gave numbers on those seats. Then, I gave them the seating lotteries. So, who got number one would sit on the chair number one. It really worked well. Excerpt 14 In Excerpt 15, she stated that it was important to make the students more focused. Therefore, the students who really wanted to listen could listen well. It was important because students can be more focused. Students who really wanted to listen could listen well. Excerpt 15 36 Participant E arranged the seats based on the classroom activities. When they had a game, she would put the chairs and the tables at the back of the class. Then, the students sat on the floor during the activity as shown in Excerpt 16. When there was a game, usually the chairs and the tables were not used and those were moved to the back, and the students sat on the floor. Excerpt 16 When they had general learning activity, she would divide the students into four or six groups. In the learning activity, they sat with their groups as stated in Excerpt 17. However, for regular meeting when there were no games or movements, usually there were four to six small groups and they sat together in circles. Excerpt 17 To make it simple, usually she asked the students to be in a group based on their rows. Thus, there would be four groups in the class as shown in Excerpt 18. However, because it was difficult to move the chairs they were only divided into four groups based on the rows. Then, the chairs were moved to the back and they faced each other for the presentation. Excerpt 18 In Excerpt 19, she stated that it was important that the teacher had access to the students. Arranging students’ seats also made the learning environment comfortable. It was important because a comfortable classroom enabled the teacher to have access to the students personally. If we did not arrange the chairs and the physical condition, it made the learning situation uncomfortable. Excerpt 19 On the other hand, Participant D had a different strategy of creating a comfortable learning environment. She focused on the teaching and learning activities. She created a fun classroom situation as mentioned in Excerpt 20. 37 I tried to make the situation in the class fun. Media or sometimes I liked to relate what was happening in the class. Making jokes with the students, so that they were happy when they studied. Excerpt 20 Participant D did not arrange the seats in their classroom because her students preferred to sit with their close friends. They chose with whom they wanted to sit. She was afraid that arranging the seats would make the students uncomfortable and would not focus on the study. Participant D added that if she arranged the seats, the students would tend to make much more noise. It happened because the students who made noise would be separated and they would speak louder to their friends. It was mentioned in Excerpt 21 that her students were likely to arrange their own seats and she was fine with that, as long as the students felt comfortable. The students could sit where they wanted as long as they were comfortable, and they promised to pay attention to the lesson well, I would not move them. Excerpt 21 She stated that it was important to manage the physical stuff and students’ seats. It influenced the learning process as shown in Excerpt 22. It was important so that the classroom condition was comfortable. For the example, a messy classroom made the students lazy to study. It would disturb the learning-teaching process. Excerpt 22 In conclusion, the participants had the same opinion that it was important to create a comfortable learning environment because it influenced the teaching- learning activities. If the students felt comfortable, they would focus on their study. Because of this belief, they did different strategies in order to create a comfortable learning environment.