Kids teaching the teachers???

Watch podcast by clicking here.. You can choose iTunes to watch and listen to podcast. This is a podcast from the K12 online Conference from 2007. This conference was totally held online and you can attend from the comfort of your own home! No planes, trains or automobiles required, just an internet connection, and some good speakers! :)

A must see for all teachers who complain that they are not getting enough technology professional development. This is a wonderful podcast explaining that teachers who were surveyed, did receive enough training, but were very uncomfortable to bring it back into the classroom and experiment with what they had learned.

I would love to show part of this video to my the teachers at my school. I think if they were using their students more, they would feel more comfortable when teaching with the technology in the classroom. The video showed the students consulting with teachers and explaining what technology options they knew about and how they could use them within the class during lessons.

The teachers in the video were open to having the students teach them the technology. They were thrilled to listen to the children and were more happy with the kids teaching them collaboratively rather than the adult technology trainers they had previously worked with in professional development lessons.

I know I hear a lot of the time that technology is not a priority right now with teachers because they are trying to save their jobs and help the students pass the "TEST". If they are working in a school in need of improvement, how can technology help to bring up the test scores?? If the teachers had heard of the constructivism theory of working together, giving the students more choice and working in groups to construct an outcome, they might consider changing their minds when it comes to technology and improving test scores.

(11:55 on podcast)
The Attributes of a Constructivist classroom mentioned in the podcast are as follows:
Collaborative, Actively Student Centered, Choice, Democratic, Reflective and Risk Taking.

(14:05 professional development paradigm shift)
From secret to open, from shame to celebrate mistakes, from individual to collaborative, etc..

(15:32 GenYES video)
This is the video that I would like to share with my staff. It shows how students are working with teachers in over 40 states throughout the country.

If we (teachers) can embrace technology in the classroom and then feel comfortable enough to admit we do not know everything, we can begin to learn with the kids. They can start teaching us and the other kids in our classes. This would really shift the power and hopefully give the kids the feeling they can do anything they set their minds to... even pass the TEST!

wiki explaining podcast
Creator of podcast - Sylvia Martinez