What can I say about the know it all? To a teacher and peer the know it all can be a little annoying and aggravating at times but they do hold a purpose in the classroom. Going through I was always and still am the one who wants the know it all to answer the question so I didn’t have to. However, there were those times that I wanted to be the one to answer before the know it all, just to prove that I did know something. So I think that the role of a know it all is to motivate others. And then there are the times where other students want the know it all to be wrong just so that they can point out the fact that they were wrong. With that I think that the know it all serves the role of the conversation/debate starter. In math when there are wrong answers then there is normally a discussion about why and how it is wrong and what can be done to correct the problem.

In the classroom there are those students who like to sit in the back of the class and then those who sit in the front of the class. In the classroom we are more likely to call on those who sit in the back because they are the least likely to be paying attention. Maybe in an online environment if there is a student who does not participate or just gets by with doing the minimum then maybe we could ask those students questions in a chat or send them a message or comment asking them to explain their responses in more detail. You could also have them respond to someone who is a front row student. Those in the front statistically do more than other students.

In our society we always learn from one another. Students learn from teachers and teachers learn from students. I learn from my students everyday. It may not be about what I am teaching them at the moment but I learn. I’ve learned about cars and dirt bikes and sports and video games. There was one day that I was helping a student in reading and we were answering fact and opinion questions and one had to deal with elephants. I asked her what she knew about elephants and she told me a fact that I had never heard before. Did you know that the ears of an African Elephant are in the shape of Africa?