Students Teaching Teachers

In Don't Compete with Social Media. Integrate It! From  Lisa Nielsen: The Innovative Educator, Lisa shares,

“This week, I had some words via Twitter with Wake County Public Schools for making decisions about policies that affect students without bringing students into the conversation in a respectful way.”

Apparently the district has blocked SnapChat and some students and teachers disagreed with this policy. When I read this, I wondered if this was a knee jerk reaction done out of fear. Too many times I see this happening under the guise of “protecting our students” when it is really done out of ignorance.

I think it would be great for students and teachers to be able to give presentations to the district to prove how useful a certain platform could be in school. If they can’t show this, then it has no place in the school.

I remember a time that magazines were used for entertainment but not educational purposes in the classroom. When I allowed my students to read articles in magazines that peaked their interest, I was able to improve reading skills such as decoding and comprehension. Since my goal was on improving reading and not content skills, students really enjoyed these lessons and would read more.

There was a time that I wasn’t allowed to show videos in the classroom. When I wrote up lesson plans on how I would use them to improve behavior, my administration approved the choice of videos I listed. Students would analyze different character’s behaviors. We would discuss how they reacted and how they could have behaved differently. After doing this, they would relate it to their own behaviors and how it could help them.

I think it would be great for teachers to make a list of social media that scared, concerned, or intrigued them and then ask students to develop presentations to explain them and show teachers how they could use it in the classroom. I think students would enjoy sharing their knowledge and it would make them think about ways it could be educational. Besides that, what student doesn’t love teaching their teacher something!

What do you think about this? Do you think teachers and students would be receptive about this? Please share.