Empowering the students

One of the things I was taught during my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course was that we should "empower the students". I've incorporated this into my lessons, and now have the kids come up to the front and write on the board or act as a "representative" for their team and allow them to do the activity on the computer.

It works fantastically, because it distinctly breaks the division between teacher/students.

Here is one of my fourth graders who had to come and do an activity... I specifically chose him cause I caught him giving a zap sign (the middle finger) to another student. My kids seem to be doing this often these days, but I honestly think that they don't know what it really means...

But he's really cute, nonetheless !