I recently happened upon the Sidekick Manifesto, authored by Shawn Humphrey. I read it in the context of a thoughtful international development blog and was struck at how well it applies to teaching, not just poverty and development issues (though of course there’s overlap there).
The manifesto says that we must stop seeing ourselves as heroes and embrace the role of sidekick. It calls for us to “ride in the side car” and “hang up our capes.” My personal favorite is when it declares we must “welcome [our] sidekick slaps.” Do check out the whole infographic.
What if we saw ourselves as the class’s sidekick? What would that do to teacher talk, and even the syllabus?
What if our students had the capes (and knew it)?
You’re reading Sidekick Manifesto for Teachers, originally posted at LearningToTeachEnglish.com.
Learning to Teach English 
Hey Emily. Thanks for sharing the Sidekick Manifesto. You may not know that I am also a teacher. And, here’s a bit of a manifesto I wrote to guide my pedagogy (which I call Tribal Teaching): http://tribalteaching.org/tribal-teaching/i-am-not-your-professor/
Once again thank you. – shawn
Hi Shawn, thanks for the link! I hadn’t clicked from your sidekick manifesto project to your other projects, so thanks for the link! I also thought your 5 Species of Students post was interesting. I subscribed to your newsletter and I’m looking forward to hearing more of what you’ve got to say. -Emily