When students become teachers and teachers become students, the roles are reversed and eventually the roles dissipate and everyone is simply a learner. This was the case in workshops I organized for many summers at a local independent school. At first there were eager although slightly nervous students and semi-skeptical teachers. Most teachers were curious to see the kids in action and some teachers were skeptical because they thought they "knew" the students and could not imagine those kids "teaching".
Lo and behold, the students surprised the teachers, and the teachers surprised themselves, as well as the students. Students rose to the occasion by preparing in-depth presentations for the sessions they taught, and in the sessions where they assisted by offering clear guidance to the adults.
Teachers saw their students through a new lens and were able to change their mental image of those kids whose ability they had initially questioned. Teachers also learned to allow themselves to not be the experts. Ultimately, over a period of several summers where many of the same students returned to teach, a collaborative effect occurred. Students and teachers were equals. This mixed gender group of students, despite spanning several grades, bonded with one another and each summer the graduating seniors were sent off with a lunch and a memento from the group.
A spillover effect impacted workshops that took place during the school year, with students assisting during PD-focused faculty meetings.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this approach was the modeling done by the students. The workshops had a digital tech component. During the workshop planning stages students shared the approaches used by their teachers in the classroom, and they discussed how ineffectively some of the teachers used the technology. Since the students were the consumers-not just of the tech but also as the learners in the classroom-they were well poised to model for their teachers alternative approaches to teaching with tech. Sometimes it pays to ask the learners for their input!