Taking your seat is not necessary in Ms. Lori Cole’s history classroom anymore, as a result of the new standing desks that have been added. In her updated classroom, she will no longer tell kids to take their seats, but cut straight to the learning.

Cole first got the idea for a classroom full of standing kids from a friend of hers who had a treadmill desk at his office.

“He said it kept him focused, awake, and engaged.”

Along with talking to her friend and learning more about the standing desks, she has special seating of her own.

“There are physical problems for people sitting in regular desks all day long, it hurt me and I don’t even sit the whole day,” Cole expressed, as she uses a ball chair at her desk to stray from the unhealthy traditional seating.

These factors inspired her to start looking for ideas and improving the environment for her kids.

“It helps to keep students awake and feel more physically engaged in what we are doing.”

Cole’s students from her 1st and 6th periods even mentioned to her that they don’t feel like they are going to fall asleep in her class. In other rooms, she has noticed students lay in their desks rather than sit which deters them from learning the best that they can.

When choosing the desks, and after doing much research, she decided on a height adjustable, mobile desk.

“I wanted to change things up for students and it was more accessible.”

The desks have a lever which adjusts for different students’ heights and are on wheels for kids to be able to get into groups and move around easier.

Cole also has a few stools around her classroom to give her students a choice of whether they want to sit or stand.

These desks now fill more than half of her classroom seating. She was able to get this because of a grant that she got from the Pattonville Education Foundation (PEF).

She has hope for the future that eventually her whole classroom will be filled with the standing desks for her students, as they were always kept in her mind throughout this whole process.

“I wanted to make it more exciting for them.”