It's usually best to decide on the seating arrangements when Matt arrives at your school.

Matt's assembly is different than your typical school assembly, so please be flexible with your seating arrangements. Students might be able to see better with a different layout than you are accustomed to.

Seating Best Practices:

• Teachers should sit in the bleachers WITH their students (not standing along the wall).
• Do not sit students in two sets of opposite-facing bleachers (like at a pro basketball game).
• If using chairs do not make more than three rows of chairs. Students past the third row will not be able to see, as Matt isn't on an elevated stage.
• Students can not sit on side on all four sides.  One side needs to be open for Matt's sound system.
• Pre-K students should not sit front and center.  It's usually better to sit them on the sides.

Gymnasiums with Bleachers

• Teachers should sit in the bleachers WITH their students (not standing along the wall).
• If all students don't fit in the bleachers please sit the younger students on the floor.
• Do NOT sit students in two sets of opposite-facing bleachers (like at a pro basketball game).  Doing so makes the audience feel disconnected from the speaker, and the message is not as effective.

Medium to Large Sized Gyms - No Bleachers

• Each class should sit in a "cluster" of two, three, or four rows (depending on number of students).
• All students can see better using this seating arrangement.
• Matt will help classes get seated, as he is more familiar with this layout.

Small Gymnasiums - No Bleachers

• If Pre-K is attending please do not sit them in the front row. It's usually best to sit them on the side.
• Matt will make an aisle down the center so students can enter and exit easily.
• Please set up chairs for teachers on the sides.

DO NOT DO THIS

The problem with this layout is that students are sitting in two sets of opposite-facing bleachers (like at a pro basketball game).  For some reason assemblies that use this layout tend feel more like a "pep assembly" instead of a program with a deep message.

The speaker is very far away from the students, and it's difficult to make eye contact and connect with the audience.  Instead of doing this layout, sit older students in one section of bleachers, and sit the younger students on the floor.

DON'T DO THIS EITHER

This is a common seating layout that many schools use for assemblies.  It's great for a magic show, but this is the worst possible seating arrangement for Matt's BMX show.

The students in the back rows will not be able to see using this layout, as they are so far back with many students blocking their view.  Since Matt is not performing on an elevated stage the students will not be able to see well using this layout.