Kids Know Everything

I'm old.
I know this, but part of me still feels young...like college young.
Going to the bar, staying out all night kind of young.
But that's not me.
I'm old.
Not my Grandma's old,
but the kind of old where I look at technology applications
and I don't know anything.
Nothing.
Nothing at all.
I realized that the teens that I teach know everything.
Not everything, everything, but everything about technology.
Unlike myself, they've always had technology.

At their age, my technology was a graphing calculator,
or a rockin' pager.
Man, that technology was AMAZING!
I tried to explain a pager to my students, and they looked at me for the point.
"Soooo...you have a device that rings and you have to go find a phone to call them back?!"
"Yes.  Yes, that's right...and we thought it was amazing!"
"Why?"
Good question kids.
It really doesn't make much sense, but at the time it was awesome.
Times have definitely changed.
During the school year when I have a question
about something with technology, I just ask my students.
They like teaching the teacher. 
But, when it comes to technology and new apps, they are the experts.
I really don't know how they know all of the this...
I have a feeling that they don't read the information pages like I do,
but somehow they figure it out.
And then they show me.


Yesterday I needed my student "teachers" to show me how to use Instagram.
Urg! I know...it's embarrassing to even write that, but it's true.
People do all sorts of fancy things and I don't have a clue.
The main problem is that September through June I just poise a question like this to my class, "Soooo, what's the deal with the multiple pictures on Instagram? How do they do that?"
I pause for the shocked faces,
and sad little nods of their heads until one of the students says,
"Really Ms. Chambers?  You know that's a different app, right?"
"Uh-huh...yeah.  I totally knew that.  What's the name of that app?"

Until September I'll read the information pages,
and then the students will explain to me how I'm doing it all wrong in the fall.
It's a good exchange.
I supply reading, writing, and speaking skills to help them in life,
and they keep me informed about social media.
It works.
And I like it.
See.  Kids know everything.