A teacher put himself for two days in student’s place
Last Updated on October 21, 2016 by Patrick
Do teachers really know what their students are doing or how they really feel? In order to discover this, the American teacher Grant Wiggins spent two days with two of his students, one of them being his daughter. He came to the conclusion that he made some huge mistakes in his career as a teacher, because he never put himself in his student’s shoes.
“I made a terrible mistake”, expert in education, teacher Grant Higgins, from New Jersey, begins his letter: “I waited fourteen years to do something I should have done from the first professorship year: to be the shadow of a student for just one day.”
The teacher says that it is the first time working in a school but not teaching classes, but training other teachers how to educate their students, Washington Post reports.
At this job, the principle suggested him to “be” a student for two days: one day, to do everything a tenth grade student does and in another day, all that a twelveth grade student does.
The schedule was as follows: they began at 7:45 and finished at 14:45. For the tenth grade, one hour and half of geometry, then spanish, 45 minutes of lunch break, then one hour and half of history and the same for integrated sciences. As for the twelveth grade, the schedule began with mathematics, then chemistry, then lunch break, then English and business.
The first great observation the teacher made: students sit all day and this really tires them down. “I could not believe how tired I was after the first day. I sat all day, except for walking from class to class. We forget this as teachers, because we stand a lot, at the blackboard, we walk when we talk, we go around among the students..”, wrote the teacher.
At the end of the day, the teacher yawned a lot and wanted to move a lot or at least to stretch a little. He was tired, but not how you are after a productive day, but it was a lethargic fatigue. He went home and all he could do is watch TV and go to bed at 20:30.
What would the teacher change: he would introduce mandatory phisical exercise at the half of the course; he would mount a hoop at the back of the class and would invite the students to play at the beginning and at the end of the hour; he would introduce a class activity that involves movement.
The second great observation the teacher made: highschool students sit passively and listen to about 90% of the duration of the course.
“Not only sitting down tired me, but so much time spent absorbing information, without doing anything with it”, said the teacher.
What would he change: he would offer short lessons with the involvement of the students, with activities that evaluate the storing of information; he would use a stopwatch for whenever he’d start talking and the students would follow him, and when this would give the alarm, he would stop; he would start every hour with questions from the students, in general or arising from not understanding the previous lessons and would put all of them on the blackboard and would ask them to decide in a group which one to start with.
The third great discovery of the teacher: as a student, you feel like a nuissance.
“We lost track of how many times we were told to keep quiet and pay attention. It is normal. Teachers have a limited time, but along the day you begin to feel bad about the students who are told all the time to pay attention, for they react this way because they sit and listen all day. It is very hard to do this and adults are never asked to do such a thing. It’s not because we are boring, but because they already sit for a long time listening”, said the teacher.
What would the teacher change: he would turn to the experience of being a parent and would use that patience and love with the students who have questions, because questions are a way to create a relationship with a student, a door which one could shut abruptly or one could open it wider; he would never turn to sarcasm in public and would ask the students to draw his attention when he does so; during exams, he would establish five minutes of reading in which the students can ask anything they want, but no one would be allowed to write to clarify all the inquiries about the exam.
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