While subbing in a 4th grade classroom I setup my iPad and my MacBook in two different areas of the room. I quietly pulled two kids and gave them each about 15 seconds worth of instruction on Photobooth. Basically, I said it lets you take silly pictures and here is the button that takes the picture. I told them to experiment with it, and take a few pictures of themselves. After a few minutes I came by and told them that I was going to send a new student over to each of them, and they had 2 minutes to teach the new student how the app worked. I rotated all the students through, with each of them teaching the next. The students loved it! And as more of them rotated through, their knowledge grew. When they figured out something new they were so excited to teach it to the next student. At the end of the day we took about 10 minutes and looked at all the pictures. It was so exciting to see how their skill set expanded. Right before we left class that day I took a minute and I explained to them what they had done. I told them that while they had been learners that day they also had become teachers. I let that thought sink in for a seconds and then I told them again as I watched their faces. As they processed you could start to see the pride swell up in them.
My goal was to inspire them and to motivate them not only to learn, but to understand that they can be teachers too. Learning doesn't just go one direction anymore. It has to go in all directions. We are all learning from each other.
Students should get the opportunity to be teachers every day!
