I had a teacher thank me today

I had a teacher thank me today.  

I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary so it caught me a bit off-guard.  She said, “thank you for liberating me.”  I didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about so I leaned in to ask her for more details.  The teacher carried on, “while you were teaching about the Book Creator app, I noticed that you were teaching some students how to publish their books to Seesaw when they finished.  You then instructed those students to teach other students how to do the same as they finished their projects.  You have liberated me, Mr. Badura. You’ve demonstrated to me how easy it is to let the students become teachers in my classroom.  I don’t have to do all of this technology by myself.”

After class, we had a great conversation about letting go and getting out of the way in our classrooms.  I told the teacher that it took me awhile to grasp the concept because of all of the memories that I had growing up in school.  It simply wasn’t acceptable to one up your teacher.  If you did, you knew not to do again.

Times have changed.  

We need to quit teaching like we were taught in our classrooms.  

Most importantly we need to get out of the way!

Learn from your students.  Don’t be afraid to ask them questions.  Your students will relish the opportunity to teach their classmates. When your students succeed in teaching you something, it’s almost magical.

What an empowering experience you create by letting that process play out in your classroom.

Shouldn’t we have more of this in our classrooms?

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