Teaching is a two way street. While it’s obvious to most people that students learn from their teachers, teachers also learn from their students.
This year I have experienced that in some memorable ways. The most recent way was when I was practicing a conversation with a student and the question “How about you?” appeared. I explained that “How about you?” and “What about you?” are ways of returning the question to the person who asked it. My student then told me about a song by Frank Sinatra titled “How about you?”, so I decided to do a quick search on YouTube. If you’d like to see it, you can click here.
It turns out the song is perfect for his level. I don’t really listen to Frank Sinatra, but he sings clearly and the lyrics are appropriate to elementary and pre-intermediate students. Thanks to our discussion and going a bit off topic, I now have a great song to use with future students.
Another way that I’ve learned from a student is by being open to exploring his interests on my own. When I started classes with a new student, he told me about a TV show called The 100 that he really likes. He mentioned it a few times, so I decided to watch an episode to see what it was about.
It’s a science fiction series that centers around a teenager named Clarke. She lives on a space station along with people from 12 other nations after a nuclear war destroyed earth. Earth is only supposed to be inhabitable in 97 more years once the radiation is gone. Due to oxygen running out on the space station, Clarke is one of the 100 young people that are sent to earth to see if it is hospitable and to report back to space station. They are basically sent having no idea what to expect and with almost no preparation.
In addition to the struggles of what is happening on earth, there is turmoil on the space station regarding how to proceed with depleting oxygen affecting everyone. Politics play out that show people wanting to get revenge on others for personal reasons, and the first episode (and almost every episode after that) ends with a cliffhanger.
If it isn’t clear by now, I became hooked to the show. It is so well done with the acting, tying together stories from multiple locations, and really leaving you guessing about what is going to happen. In class we ended up talking about it a lot, and I was able to incorporate grammar practice into our discussion. When I watched the first episode the second to last season was being released, and I was able to catch up and then watch the series finale at the same time as my student.
I have since had other students interested in The 100, and it has worked out well. One student is a beginner but has seen every season but the last one, so he has been watching the series in English with English subtitles from the beginning, and I have created reviews for each episode. Another student started watching it, and we then talked about it in class.
Learning from my students has made me a more well-rounded individual as well as a teacher with more tools in my toolbox. These particular situations were nice reminders of the importance of listening to and learning from students.
Have you learned anything interesting from your students? If so, leave a comment below!
