Kids Teaching Teachers

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Today I had an opportunity to do one of my favourite things as a teacher. I had a chance to present to a group of fellow educators with a team of students. Watching my students teach the teachers always gives me a huge buzz. It is fantastic to watch them speak so well about how they learn and about what works for them.

Today we presented to teachers at Wirreanda High School. My presenting team consisted of Matt and Ben, two students from my class, as well of two students who were in my class last year, Jaiden and Trent. Jaiden and Trent have clearly settled into high school well and it was great to see them given this opportunity to to be heard.

The boys talked openly and honestly to the teachers about the type of learning that they are (or were) doing at Primary School. They talked through their use of mobile technologies to support creative learning and their use of student blogs as Learning Portfolios. My former students asked their current teachers for opportunities to use their blogs and to open up the learning to include some of the opportunities that they had in the past. It was fantastic to watch.

It was great to see the responsiveness of staff at Wirreanda, with discussion happening after the session. Wirreanda, like our school, has taken big steps toward making positive change. At a recent open night, I saw the introduction of flexible learning spaces and spoke to teachers that were excited about the things happening at this school. It says a lot that students felt comfortable speaking their mind to a room full of their teachers. It’s easy to come away feeling like good things are happening here, so much so that my son will be attending Wirreanda when he begins high school in 2014.

I appreciated the opportunity for us to share our learning and look forward to strengthening the relationship between our schools in the future.