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Students, Faculty Trade Roles For A Day

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By KLINT LOWRY | The Suncoast News

Published: May 21, 2008

HUDSON - Students took over classrooms and administrative offices at Hudson Middle School on Friday - and their teachers helped them do it.

The annual Student-Teacher Exchange Day is one of the most anticipated events of the school year at Hudson Middle School. National Jr. Honor Society students take the places of teachers and administrators in the classrooms and front office.

"I think it's one of the most positive things we do all year," Judy Walker, a teacher and NJHS faculty advisor, said. "The students have a good time; they're in charge, they're teaching. It gives them an idea what we go through and what the administrators do up front."

Teachers also have a good time with STED Day, Walker said. They are still teaching, although it's a different kind of teaching.

By its very nature, middle school is a time of tremendous transition, from childhood to the teen years. STED Day gives participating students the chance to see a familiar setting from a different, more adult, perspective.

That was certainly the case for eighth-grader Chelsea Toohey as she took over as principal from Steve Van Gorden.

"I didn't realize how much they did," Chelsea said of school administrators.

She offered the comment as she sat at the principal's desk, checking e-mails and listening to around-campus walkie-talkie chatter.

"I just thought they kind of walked around saying 'don't do this, don't do that.' But there's a lot of questions and responsibilities."

Of course, the reins of the school could not be completely turned over to an eighth-grader, even one who's an honor student. Much of the time, the situation was more or less like job shadowing, as Chelsea saw the number and variety of issues that can come up in a principal's day. These include building issues to calls from parents to students and teachers coming with their individual issues and incidents to report, negotiate or complain about.

One of the things Chelsea found most interesting was seeing Van Gorden use his people skills. There's more to being a boss than being bossy, as she and her mother had discussed beforehand.

Chelsea was amazed how easily Van Gorden can recall every student's name as they walked around the school.

"It isn't easy, but it is an important part of the job," Van Gorden said.

In a way, Chelsea might have had it easy compared some of her peers who had to give lectures, administer quizzes and maintain order taking over for teachers.

Some of the teachers and students spend a day or two preparing. In some cases, the students had to do extra homework for their day as a teacher. Seventh-grader Lexi Carro had to study about the founding of the Mormon Church in order to teach Larry Rizzi's eighth-grade history class.

"He gave me a textbook," Lexi said. "I read it Wednesday and I read it Thursday and I made little notes at my house."

Rizzi, like all the teachers, was present in the student-run classes, but kept a low profile.

"I sit back and I try not to get involved," Rizzi said, adding that the classes were told that Carro was running a real class session and to treat it as such.

Lexi felt her presentation got a little better with each class. She also realized that while teachers have to prepare lesson plans, they also have to be prepared to adjust those plans on the spot to the flow of that particular classroom.

Some of the students who took a crack at being a teacher suddenly found themselves at odds with their peers. Seventh-grader Victoria Brown was handling her stint as a science teacher, although she found the front of a classroom is no place to be soft spoken.

"They're giving me a little bit of a hard time," she said.

"Because she's mean," Nick Basquit replied. "She yelled at me."

"I didn't yell at him, I told him to sit down," Victoria responded.

Walker has overseen several STED Days. The greatest value of it, she said, is that it gives the students a whole new perspective on these adults in their lives, and on adulthood.

"One of the things they'll tell you is how tired they are at the end of the day," Walker said.

And it is apparently an experience that sticks with them. From time to time she will run into former students. No matter how many years have passed, one of the first things that will come up is STED Day, and it's always a positive memory.

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