Empowering Students in the Classroom

Students becoming the Teachers.

Our current class project involves a change in roles. The students must become the teacher.

The assignment is as follows:

• They have an assigned topic relative to English.
• They have 1 hour.
• They must have a presentation of the topic that allows students to learn the subject.
• They must be prepared to answer any questions the students have.
• They must have an activity that measures how well the students understood the topic.
• They are in charge of classroom management and effectively handling disruptions.

It is amazing to watch. They have spent a lot of time and thought in how they will manage their peers' behaviors. Some of the solutions have been:

1. Sending them out of the room to write an apology.

2. Giving stickers and points to students with good behaviors.

3. Moving certain people to the front.

4. Giving more responsibility to overactive students

 The really cool part is how much more the overall class participates when their peers are leading the activities and discussions.  They have been respectful to each other, managed time effectively, and created some awesome activities that I plan on using myself!  

They're teaching me too!

In the picture on the right the group above created a grammatical scavenger hunt. Below is a student answering questions about synonyms.

Great Participation!

I have learned so many things this year about myself, teaching, and how important it is to empower my students. Part of the reason I love this project so much is seeing how they flourish when given the freedom and responsibility in the classroom.