I hijacked a colleague's lesson

One colleague of mine also has this "PCs and Peripherals" course, he's actually the one who usually has them but this year both classes of IBT-students have the course at the same time and you can't clone him. Therefor I got the other one, the one he didn't want (another town), and the one he do teach is the class I'm the classteacher of.

Many of my colleagues tell me I'm doing wrong when I'm stick to my Masterplan so last Friday I started to doubt on myself: am I nuts or am I brilliant?

Anyhow, I also needed inspiration what to teach and besides, as a classteacher I also wanted to be sure my class was doing alright.

So I attended his class. 

I sat there and enjoyed, listened and took notes. 

Listened, questioned, took notes on and on.

Suddenly when I looked around me I realized I'm the only one taking notes and probably the only one listening (!). One student was sleeping at his desk and sleeping so hard you couldn't woke him up. The other ones were doing something else: Facebook, newspapers, comic sites and you name it. 

This teacher has lots and lots of knowledge and experience but man, his lessons are boring. After 30 min I was very frustrated over the situation, students without interest and a teacher who continue without changing his didactics.

I had to wake them up!

I mean, really?

It was an EPIC FAIL!

So I asked my colleague if I could borrow like 10 min to give them a wake up call, and he gave me green light. I'm not an expert, not even a 'real' teacher, but at least my students stay awake...

And now dear readers, now we're coming to the part I don't know if I'd be proud of or if I'd feel ashamed of.

I f**king hijacked his course!

I took one of my Kahoot! quizzes and that's always an excellent option to trigger the learning process. And what an excellent tool Kahoot! really is! Man, you should have been there... All in a sudden they were

• Learning
• Discussion
• Active
• Problemsolving

The result was all beyond my expectations! In two (2) minutes the whole class attention was focused on me, I was in the spotlight and I had all chances in the world to bring out the message, the learning, the education. 

Pwned!

One quiz of 22 questions became a second quiz with 20 questions. The class wanted more and more. They didn't want to have breaks, all they wanted was to play and learn more.

And now when I looked into my colleagues eyes, which was all black, I understood: I hijacked not even the lesson but the whole course. Man, he's pissed :P ...but I gave him something to think about, I sure did. I couldn't talk with him on Friday but today he came to me with two things:

1. He has started with some Kahoot! quizzes
2. I'm not allowed to attend his classes anymore...

My own course?

Well according to my Masterplan I'm doing great! Especially after I've attended my colleagues lessons... What my other colleagues think about the problem of gaming during class I don't have that problem. 

No, they are allowed to play one game and do challenges inside that one only game. During my lessons there's something happens all the time, if we have nothing to do we just don't sit still and practice waiting, we have Minecraft.

This week in my course we've had lots of discussions, talked much about what skills they already have, what we should focus on. They had a mission to think about what a PC is and how it works, write it down on approx three A4 (with pictures and writing rules). 

My theory lessons all starts with the quiz gaming plattform Kahoot! and usually ends in massive discussions and some googling to prove I'm wrong :D What came to Minecraft logic gates was easy peasy so I had to improvise a harder quest: make a digital clock with redstones!

The guys in my course didn't want to leave class because they was sooo close to a breakthrou with the redstones. They've realized two important things 

• Learning is fun.
• Learning is multiplayer.

...and you have no time (or need) to sleep on my lessons...