Dive Brief:

• Alan November, senior partner and founder of November Learning, writes in eSchoolNews that teachers can benefit from involving students in their professional development; November believes student involvement can be crucial to a successful ed-tech implementation, including having them lead workshops for teachers on topics like Minecraft or Diigo.
• That way, he notes, students are able to help teachers understand their own motivations and expectations around tech skills.
• November recommends the teachers observe others, including watching students learn in different classrooms in order to confront preconceptions around what students are capable of; he also says teacher should ask for students input before leading staff development.

Dive Insight:

A shift in perspective can lead to better classroom instruction, and November's perspective is in line with that of initiatives like the national Shadow a Student challenge. In that exercise, educators and administrators literally follow a student around for a single day, in order to better understand student life, and foster empathy and understanding. Adult participants did everything from hopping on the big yellow bus with the students they choose to follow, to struggling to find a table in the cafeteria during lunch, to navigating packed hallways and attending homeroom or regular classes.  

“Some of the leaders who've done it have been surprised with how passive the student's day is, how much sitting there is, how many transitions there are that don't make much sense," Susie Wise, K-12 lab network director at Stanford d.school, previously told Education Dive. "You don't see that when you're looking at a master schedule and you're in your leader mode.”