Day 9

One of the best parts of having a student-teacher is being able to sit at a table with the students during her instruction. I love looking around at their varied expressions as they listen (or not), comment or blurt out their thoughtful (or thoughtless) responses. From this vantage point, I'm really no different from my sixth graders. I listen, make a connection, and want to share it with everyone immediately. I also find myself becoming tempted to start up side conversations, but I resist because I'm trying to set a good example. I'm the adult and the professional after all.

This role reversal, from teacher to student, was all the more obvious to me today as I took part in a small group discussion on a story called "The Fun They Had" by Isaac Asimov, which depicts school in 2157. There were just four of us and we were chatting about what we'd prefer, going to school with live teachers and classmates or logging in to study and submitting classwork to a faceless teacher.

"Well listen to this," I told them, glad to have a personal connection, "I'm taking an online course right now and I've only met my classmates once. We have to do all of the assignments from PowerPoints and articles and we go online once a week for a discussion that we..." I gasped in the middle of my sentence.

One child understood the meaning of my gasp right away."What's wrong? Forget your homework?" I tried for a quick recovery. I wanted to know if they'd like to get their education that way.

"Do you have a dog?" Another asked.

"Nope, I can't use that excuse." My mind raced with the implications of my missing assignment.

I looked up to my student-teacher, who was ringing the bell to bring the attention back to the front. I envied her role for a moment--that position of control. But I suppose it's good to see what it's like from the other side, too. Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's just downright uncomfortable.