Australian Christian College Hume Principal Sam Woods played the role of one of his pupils as part of the international Shadow a Student Challenge.
The challenge takes educators out of their offices and into the hallways, spending a day shadowing the movement, academics and school activities of a student at their school.
Principal Woods shadowed Year 9 student Josh Bargebos on Tuesday, September 12.
“I was looking forward to connecting with the students, teachers and curriculum from a perspective I’m otherwise removed from,” Mr Woods said
“I was eager to experience the timetable from a student’s perspective and understand if we’re just running with an outdated model or if there are creative ways to make the timetable serve the school community better.”
Mr Woods said he also wanted to better understand the cognitive load that students experience throughout the day and find out how taxing a whole day of learning is.
Josh Bargebos said he’d never heard of a teacher or principal becoming a student for a day.
“(I was) excited to show Principal Woods what our school is like from my point of view. I hope he (didn’t) get a detention for checking his phone during the day.”
The Shadow a Student Challenge is part of the School Retool initiative, a professional development fellowship that helps school leaders redesign their school cultures. The challenge follows four key steps: prepare, shadow, reflect and act.
“It’s eye-opening for me to be in the classroom from a student point of view and see if there are any practical things we can do to enhance the learning environment,” Mr Woods said.
“By experiencing Josh’s journey first-hand, I’ll be better equipped to lead and support the students in meaningful ways.
“This challenge reinforces the school’s commitment to providing the best possible educational experience.
“At ACC, we’re always looking for ways to improve the student experience and fundamentally make our community a better place.
“The Shadow a Student Challenge was a great tool to help us understand, engage, and inspire our students.”