Seeing school through students’ eyes

An interesting proposal from Grant Wiggins:

Teachers would be required once per month to shadow a student for an entire day – go to class, go to lunch, go to the bathroom, etc. – to understand with great empathy how school looks and feels from the student side...This is really the only way for teachers to come to grips with how boring and chaotic much of school life really is for kids.

Has anyone done this?  Did it impact your teaching?  I remember doing this in student teaching, but the memory faded quickly.  I’m not sure his once-a-month idea is possible, but what about once per year?

Labels:

I think this is a GREAT idea—maybe not EACh teacher, once a month—but EVERY teacher, at least once a year.  I shadowed one of my students about four years ago, and it was utterly illuminating.  Really tiring, first, going from one subject to another all day long.  At our school, most teachers have no idea what’s happening in other subject areas, and what a huge different it would make if we could pull in just one detail from another class every now and then.

I’d also love it if administrators shadowed a teacher for a day, frankly, for same reasons.

I think it’s an interesting concept.  I remember back to student teaching days...observations were impossible to sit through for me.  Teachers are typically teachers of action, maybe borderline hyperactive in some ways.  I have a terrible time sitting still in a classroom.  Because of this, I generally try to structure movement into my classes, however, being an 8th grade teacher, many of my fellow teachers don’t focus on the needed movement - “preparing them for high schoo” being the excuse.  I couldn’t sit still in classrooms the way many of my students are required to...how can we still expect their minds to be ready to learn?