[stanley]

I will be teaching classes of around 30 8-10 year olds. The classrooms are very traditional with blackboards, a stage for the teacher and desks in rows with very little space for manoeuvring between them. They will be speaking lessons. I'd really appreciate some good ideas about how to get the children working together with a minimum of fuss so that they are not always having to work with the child nearest to them. Unfortunately, I will not have my own room and as lessons are only 40 minutes long, I need really quick ways of getting the children into groups. One thing I've thought of is reading out the names of the children I'd like to work together and then rewarding the group who gets together the fastest. The main problem is with desks not being moveable though. Oops - I'm rambling. I'll stop.