This article is about a veteran high school teacher and after 14 years of teaching, she was now hired as a learning coach. This learning coach was asked to be a high school student for 2 days just to get her feet wet. Her job was to do everything a high school student has to do throughout the day. From taking notes, taking tests to walking down the halls to head to her next class.
Key Takeaway #1
“Students sit all day, and sitting is exhausting.” (Wiggins, 2014) Her first take away was the revelation of how much a student has to sit throughout the day. As teachers, we’re so used to being on our feet as we lecture and as we walk around to check for understanding. We don’t sit, yet our students are sitting down all day and it’s exhausting. I think back to the staff meetings or trainings I’ve sat through, it’s very exhausting and I normally average about 15 yawns throughout a training/meeting. In my elementary setting, our students have very short attention spans so I implement a lot of centers and rotations. I have 6 groups of 4 students and we rotate through 6 different stations so kids get to walk around and do a different activity to help them stay active. I even have my smartboard set up to play music as students rotate to their next station; the song I play is Happy by Pharrell Williams.
Key Takeaway #2
“High School students are sitting passively and listening during approximately 90% of their classes.” (Wiggins, 2014) The second takeaway was the revelation that students hardly spoke and the communication was one-way. The teacher lectured, the students listened. I believe communication has to go both ways, students need to feel like they collaborated and added their opinions and views to a discussion. If not, students should might as well just watch youtube videos and learn that way. The veteran teacher also mentioned that if he could go back in time and change something, it’s that he would lecture for about 10 minutes and follow it up small group work where students can collaborate and discuss the top in depth.
Key Takeaway #3
“You feel a little bit like a nuisance all day long.” (Wiggins, 2014) “Sit down and pay attention!” As teachers, we’ve said this over and over and this is what the veteran teacher heard all day long as well. Of course, we have a set time to deliver and complete a certain lesson but most of the time, students are moving around and off task because they’ve been sitting for long periods of time and over loaded with information. We’ve all felt it, as I previously stated in my trainings or meeting example. How many times have we left a training mentally drained and over loaded so we need to do some type of physical activity afterward? Kids need the same.
I believe it’s a great idea to consistently shadow or sit in and observe other teachers teach. We not only learn from the teachers but we see teaching from the students perspective and come up with ideas and strategies that will allow us to best serve our students.
References
Wiggins, Grant. (2014). A veteran teacher turned coach shadows 2 students for 2 days – a sobering lesson learned. Retrieved June 22, 2014 from: https://grantwiggins.wordpress.com