Envision Academy Teacher, Jessi Stein, explains how she and her students push each others thinking.
“There’s always that power dynamic between student teacher, where it’s like ‘oh, you must know more than me because you’re an adult or a teacher or whatever.’ And I think that’s not always the case. Part of school is asking critical questions and pushing back against assumptions. Paulo Freire has this beautiful quote about – teachers not being the holder of all the knowledge and students as empty vessels to fill. The best learning happens when we can have a discussion about ideas and build knowledge and understanding together. And I just think about that all the time in my discussions with teachers. Like – how much of a good class instruction is direct instruction where you’re talking, and how much of it is the student actually engaging with the material and making their own meaning? Sometimes, teachers are like – ‘but they might get it wrong!’ I say – that’s okay! That’s okay if they get it wrong. Now, they’re going to ask questions like, ‘Wait wait I thought that this…Oh no it’s this way because of that! Oh right!’ And now you have meaning.”
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