I generally have two setups for working in my music room. When we are rehearsing for performance or I am demonstrating a skill, students sit on a small set of risers in my room. Group work is done is smaller groups of 2-4, and then students have to spread out on the floor and the risers. I don't keep many chairs in my room because of space issues. Because I only see the students for 50 minute periods, I don't have too much transition time. Generally transition is getting lined up, which sometimes entails some cleanup.
I noticed that in the Travel USA project, Jane used the computer lab down the hall and split the class in two. The information said she relies on parent volunteers and extra help from student teachers and other adults. That would be really tricky to do on a regular basis for days at a time if a teacher didn't have a paraprofessional or a student teacher.
I find that then students are really doing something which they find interesting, classroom management problems rarely exist. My students love the composition project and I very rarely have behavior issues. My rule is that they are not allowed to get up and wander to other people's computers during the class. I give them the rubric at the beginning so they know exactly what they will be graded on and I do frequent conferencing with them so that they know I will be checking in on a regular basis to see their work.
It seems that Jane's computer lab only has 9 computers which doesn't seem like very many to service a good number of students. This is most likely a common issue. We have a full computer lab with about 25 computers, but using software sometimes requires more in licensing fees than what we have. I make do with a laptop cart of 15 and one desktop in my room and that has worked out well. Some of the advantage is that is forces them to work cooperatively and build more relationship skills in the process.
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