Redefining the Term Student as Co-Teacher

After an invigorating and energizing #FiresidePD this morning there was one thing that came to mind on my drive home and it was the definition of student. Google defines a student as:


Is there any mention of the student being the only one doing the learning in the room? Does it mention that a student is involved in sitting and getting?  I particularly like the quote "denoting someone who is studying in order to enter a particular profession."

Are we teaching students content, or are we teaching them the skills that they need to enter a particular profession?  Are we helping students to find their passions and what makes them tick? (A great word used by Jason Bretzmann).  Are we giving them the opportunity to seek out their passions by the time they leave us?  Are we giving students inquiring about a profession in education an opportunity to try it out?  Are we challenging students to teach others about a content area that they are passionate about?  Are we asking/giving permission to students to "co-teach?"  Can we offer students credit for co-teaching?

Currently students in our district have the opportunity to earn credit for being assistants in a few class sections, but could we open that up?  Could a student that has previously taken AP Environmental Science and was very successful have the opportunity to co-teach the following school year?  Let's think about this...how strong would a partnership like this be?  We would be coaching a student to teach, and we would be having a student's constant perspective in our teaching.  To me this seems like a WIN-WIN situation. What do you think?



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