I was talking to some friends/co-workers the other night when inevitably the subject turned to school. After some initial chatter about curriculum, school governance etc… I came up with an outrageous idea! I am quite certain that no school will ever implement what I am about to propose, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since last week. I will share the idea here, then I will share this post with every administrator I work with from now until the end of my career and see if, perhaps, at some point, it will be possible. If the idea appeals to you, I suggest you do the same.
We were, my friends and I, talking about the Grade 12 IB art exhibition and discussing the mind-blowing work most students produce at the end of this two-year course. I mentioned how impressed I have always been with the accompanying process journals, when I casually mentioned that I would love to take an IB art course. Like right now! As an adult. While I am at school. With the grade 12 students. While I teach. As part of my schedule.
Here is my idea:
What if part of your teaching load as a teacher was to take one course at your school with the students. It could be IB or AP or any course you find interesting. You teach one less class and use that time to sit in with the class of your choice as a student. You do the work, you participate, you model learning. You are a Teacher-learner.
I am not sure of the logistics, or how it would work contractually. I am sure there is an administrator, somewhere out there who can work that out. I am an ideas guy! Perhaps, I need to actually sit down and work out the logistics, because let’s face it, for all the jargon of life-long learning, most schools would never seriously consider a plan like this. Paying teachers not only to teach classes, but also take them? Radical. I know.
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by cayoup
Just think of the community a model like this would create. Think of how the students would perceive teachers as learners, as people who love the act of learning new things. Teacher-learners would model behavior in terms of tech use, discussions, work ethic and more. Imagine siting with a group of grade 10 students trying to figure out how to graph a slope. (Yeah, I still don’t know what that means) Imagine showing students that you are not an expert in all fields. Yes, I can teach grade 8’s how to find inspiration and write poetry, but I am just like you when it comes to the final Drama assessment.
Here are some course I would love to take:
- IB Art, Drama, and/or Music.
- Any basic math class (maybe Algebra again)
- TOK
- Language B Chinese Foundation
- IB Econmics
- IB Film
- IB Language A Lit (Yes, I know I can technically teach this class, but maybe it would be more fun to take it)
Like I said, I am not sure how all of this translates into pay-scales or teachable hours, but I do know that a school with Teacher-learners would be a pretty amazing place to work…I mean learn. It would be a school that takes learning communities and life-long learning pretty seriously. What do you think? Ridiculous or the best idea you have ever heard. Looks like I am may not be the only one and this is nothing new. Take a look at Freedom to Learn by Carl R. Rogers.
Thank you for posting this! I wholeheartedly agree! Keep on this! I have always wished I had the education that is available to the students at my school. I never learned French or was able to learn calculus and now would love to have those chances! Sort of like the “employee discount” you get if you work at a store! Ha!
While I could go and pursue those classes through my local community college or higher education, I really just want the exposure, the general idea, a relaxed, fun and no pressure place where I can be immersed in the thinking without worry of grades, papers or other such implements of “assessment”. I can learn fine without them and would love the chance to do so!
I’ve also always wanted to have teachers switch and visit each others classrooms. I definitely think there are ways to accomplish this! Either classify this as actual, authentic “PD” aka Professional Development or to look at teaching schedules to include one “class” per semester, I not only think its doable, but essential to help keep teachers learning and growing as learners as well as an avenue to begin to work together to provide wonder, excitement and appreciation for each other’s talents and work!
I think your idea is fantastic! Recently, I approached a teacher that I admire at our school to see if it was possible to attend DP French. As a teacher of the English language, I believe this will give me fabulous leverage both professional as a language learner and as a language teacher. Now the challenge will be our timetables ;). The idea that this could/would become part of your teaching load is truly inspiring!
This is kinda like mature age students in Uni. I learned so much from these students with their life experiences that they brought to class with them. I was studying Art back then and the mature age students were so good with concepts and making statements in Art. I haven’t seen that in a school yet but I have had teachers join my EX as a student and the kids loved the fact that the teacher was there as a learner. It has only happened a couple of times (recently with a class I ran on crochet) but it sure was powerful.
There’s nothing to stop you from going to a class right now, though. If you’re not teaching when a particular class is on, why not ask the teacher and see what happens?
Another teacher comes to my DP Lang and Lit class when she can.
If it was part of the culture I’d see it as doable and expected. At the UWC in India (a boarding school) we had a Tuesday night seminar class. Students and teachers alike took part in the semester -long course (for no credit; just for the joy of learning). They read, discussed, and did the same assignments. There were also student guest lecturers (if the issue for politics and Israel-Palestine was discussed, students would prepare a little lesson on their expertise). This seminar still continues to-date.
It was expected that students and teachers would participate and go on this journey together. They brought in their own experiences and it enriched the learning.
However, if it’s not part of the learning process, would there be a negative effect? Would we change the dynamics of a class completely? Would that be a good thing or a bad thing?
I like the idea of dropping in, but I think the power would be in students learning alongside teachers. Especially in classes like Art etc…it would be need to be a 2 year commitment.
I do, however, love the idea of the shared seminar! You can have an EX style class like Jane mentioned open to teachers and students.
Sort of like DC101 but students are welcome and encouraged to come. The wheels are turning. Thanks.
I was thinking earlier this year that it would be great to have “community” classes on Saturdays in our school building. People in the community could come and teach courses on whatever they want to. I was thinking along the lines of a longer unconference. We have locals that are experts in all sorts of things like pottery, fishing, and flint knapping. Of course that would require someone to organize and be available every Saturday and I am so overbusy now….
Maybe next year I can pay a ukulele/guitar teacher to come into my class and teach me and my students. That would be a lot of fun!
It’s a great idea. My teaching neighbors and I often wander into each others’ classes, but actually sitting at the desks, doing assignments? Of course, me doing assignments for the classes is something I would like to do more but don’t really have the time.
Playing Upper School / Adult basketball on Friday afternoons has been great at breaking down barriers, and that’s a sort of informal learning.
I got through IB feeling like I hadn’t been able to take half the courses I wanted to, and I am loyal to the point of irrationality to the program–I can’t imagine a better grounding in a basic subject. Told myself I would either self-teach from books, and not do the exam, or (this goes into the distant-future, ie verging on self-deception, category) set up a system for adults to take courses while they work. Like night-time uni courses, but online, making full use of the possibilities of networking on the internet, and (ideally) expanding on the core linguistic offerings (for the course, not individual subjects).
The greatest people of any age have always been autodidacts, and their knowledge, hard-won, earnestly earned, is probably of greatest value; but I think free, universal education should start with a program, a curriculum, people can believe in. One that works.
And don’t forget CAS. However frequently it becomes a box-ticking exercise, it has the potential to change lives. If people — if adults! — literally [i]chose[/i] to do community service, and weren’t effectively strong-armed into it, like kids at most IB schools are these days … imagine what a difference that would make! It sounds like a tiny detail, but people who do things by choice do them so differently than people who don’t: it’s a simple detail of our psychological make-up, that we rationalise decisions forced upon us as not our own decisions, even if any 18-year old should know that education is good for them. And it’s a simple enough fact to capitalize on, I think.
Got my attention – a few questions pop up immediately but basic concept – love it. Will ponder and maybe raise some of those questions later.
Love the idea….especially of creating a community of learners. For similar reasons I have been having students teach teachers as part of an ICT unit (http://rossparker.org/teach-a-teacher-mac-edition/), but I never thought about it working the other way around.
You are more than welcome in my IB Music class. I love it when a community choir or band is created vs. a school choir/ band. There is far more focus and fun in this kind of setup. (In fact my mum has just joined a school choir as a chorister with a bunch of other adults to help support the less-experienced students sing Faure’s Requiem)
A friend of mine used to go on and on about how the perfect community was 200 people with a mix of ages from birth to death and that everyone learns from observing each other. He was also set on the idea that having mixed age classes was much more natural than grouping students according to age. It reminds me of the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and how many people have shortened it to ‘it takes a village’.
Thanks Alison,
Love and appreciate the invite and will pop in for sure, but like I said above, the idea of putting in the hours and “doing” an actually course carries a lot of weight here. I think as a learner teachers need that rigor and reminder of how hard it really is to do well in school and/or learn. Also would be great for students to watch, relate to, and commiserate with a teachers as they stress of finals or final performances etc…
The point is that we are in it together, not just popping in voluntarily when we have time. Having said that, let me know when I can pop in for something fun.
My grade 8’s are practicing playing ‘Fossiles’ on Wednesday period 2 (everyone has their own kolintang/ xylophone) and their also going to set about writing their own ‘theme’. You’re welcome to come along and learn with them. Alternatively period 3 Thursday my grade 9’s will be rehearsing some songs for Da Vinci week — the boys in that class are really great singers/ harmonizers for first timers and if we have time we’ll also be writing out compositions on Sibelius.
Seriously, let me know when you’re available, because I’d love a participant in my class who would also be able to give me some teacherly feedback.