In my classroom, I have 25 "collaborative" desks grouped into 6 groups of 4 with 1 "Steven Glansberg" desk in the back of the room.  I don't use a seating chart for any of my classes, and therefore let my students pick where they want to sit.  At the beginning of the school year, I give the traditional "make sure you find a place to sit where you can succeed, and sometimes that means sitting by people you normally won't sit by" speech.  I have only had to move one student this year to an assigned seat due to misbehavior.  I have been lucky this year in that regard.  But what is more interesting to me is how the "seating chart" changes on its own throughout the course of a semester.

I am one of those people that really enjoys watching how students interact with one another, so I pay special attention to how the "group dynamics" of the desks effect different students.  At the start of each semester, students usually select their spot based on what friends they have in the class.  I will see sophomores stick together, football players, girlfriends/boyfriends, girl tables, boy tables, etc. the typical "clique" groups.  That seating arrangement usually lasts about 2 to 3 weeks, or until the first tests/quizzes get passed back.  Then there usually is a changing of the guard per se.  It's is kind of amazing how much kids realize who they can and can't work with.  Now granted a bad grade can influence that realization, but kids do understand it.  It's just a matter of whether or not they act on that realization or not.  I encourage them to find what works best for them and then stick with it.  I will see a lot of mixing and matching over the next couple of weeks as they try and figure out what combinations work the best.  Not all of the moves are math related, cause this is high school, but it is fascinating to watch how the group dynamics change throughout the course of the semester.
 
We are currently in week 2 of a new semester, and because a lot of my classes had students change from period to period, we are back in the "feeling out" stage.  Some students who still have same members from last semester stick together, and bring some "newbies" in.  Some reverted back to 1st semester thinking and sat immediately with friends.  It's only a matter of time until a group of 4 turns into a group of 6 or 7, or the conversations that start with "Is it okay if I sit here today?" happen.  I am excited to see how the new group dynamics impact each student and in turn how the dynamics impact the overall feel of the class.