Teacher Training, Taught by Students

Interesting teacher training program in low performing NJ schools ...

Syidah O’Bryant scribbled notes in a composition book, trying to keep up with a lesson about why teenagers are so sleepy in the morning.

Usually Ms. O’Bryant, an eighth-grade social studies teacher, is the one talking. But on Tuesday, it was her student, Kare Spencer, 14.

“She’s the boss of me; she’s teaching me,” Ms. O’Bryant said.

In a role reversal, Ms. O’Bryant and other teachers at Brick Avon Academy are getting pointers from their students this year as part of an unusual teacher training program at 19 low-performing Newark schools.

The lesson learned by Ms. O’Bryant? “It makes you think about really hearing the kids,” she said. “You can learn from them. They have their own language.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/nyregion/15metjournal.html?hpw