DP167

Teaching the Student Teacher! (Japanese: 海辺のポケモンスクール！ The Beach Pokémon School!) is the 167th episode of the, and the 633rd episode of the Pokémon anime. It first aired in Japan on March 11, 2010 and in the United States on August 7, 2010.

Blurb
On their way to the Grand Festival, a meeting with Johanna in Neighborly Town reveals that she is to teach a beginning Pokémon class to some young students. When she's asked to judge the Neighborly Town Pokémon Contest (taking place at the same time as her class), our heroes offer to substitute for Johanna. Once they're in charge of the students, their attention is drawn to a boy named Thomas. He loves to pull practical jokes—and Piplup seems to be the chosen target of those jokes!

Each of our heroes chooses a different subject to teach. When it's Dawn's turn to explain the workings of a Pokémon Contest, she decides to formulate a brand-new combination on the spot. Unfortunately, "Ice Chandelier" fails to work, and Dawn is dismayed but determined to work on it. And, thanks to good advice from Thomas, she figures out how to make the combo succeed!

Meanwhile, at the Neighborly Town Contest where Johanna is judging, Jessilina (Jessie in disguise) wins her fourth Ribbon and earns Johanna's admiration.

Our heroes discover that Thomas likes Piplup a lot, but is too shy to know how to express it. Dawn's encouragement lifts Thomas's spirits, and the gang leaves the Pokémon class with the children happy and excited. Johanna is grateful for our heroes' assistance. They head back to the road toward the Grand Festival, with the exciting prospect of watching Dawn pull off the brand-new combination in the competition!

Plot
With 's battle at the Sunyshore Gym being postponed, he and head over to Valor Lakefront where  will compete in the Sinnoh Grand Festival. The gang arrive at an unnamed seaside town following Dawn's insistence. As the sun sets they meet Johanna on the beach along with her, quite a surprise for Ash and. Johanna reveals the fact that she travels once in a while around Sinnoh to give seminars called "My Very First Pokémon Coordinator Class" which are aimed at helping young children glean some wisdom and guidance in leading their life with Pokémon. The seminars are quite well planned, even having a lesson plan, from which the gang come to know the contents of the seminar: getting to know, how to a Pokémon, how to be a good Coordinator, and all about Pokémon breeding. Sadly, the seminar planned for the kids of the beach town during the next day was going to be cancelled due to Johanna having to go fill in Nurse Joy's place as a Contest Judge. Dawn volunteers herself along with Ash and Brock to substitute for her during the next day's seminar, relieving Johanna and pumping the gang up at the prospect of a fun learning experience.

The next day dawns bright and sunny, perfect for having a good time. Ash and his friends begin the class with a great deal of zeal, only to have their confidence deflate when a brash young child called Thomas doubts their capability. Dawn and Ash show off their collection of Ribbons and Gym Badges respectively to prove themselves, Ash failing to impress with his one missing Badge compared to Dawn's full Ribbon case. The seminar begins with getting to know Pokémon, and  volunteering to be petted and fawned over by the children. Thomas annoys Piplup, pulling the Pokémon's cheeks for fun. Dawn scolds Thomas and asks him to put himself in Piplup's place. The advice bounces off him completely. Meanwhile, Jessilina is putting on quite the performance in the Neighborly Town Pokémon Contest, with a brilliant electric wing Seal on Seviper and an almost tangible confidence.

The gang brings out their full party, to give the kids a chance to become familiar with more Pokémon. Even the hard headed Thomas was quite fascinated by the array of Pokémon. While Brock takes a breeding class, teaching the students the ins and outs of being a and how to make sure a Pokémon is healthy, Piplup takes a well-deserved nap, tuckered out from all the cuddling and fun. Thomas takes this opportunity to draw graffiti on Piplup's face, angering the Pokémon who chases Thomas along the beach.

Ash then gave a lesson on how to catch a Pokémon, using a marked rock and rubber balls for target practice. Thomas is not impressed by the surprisingly good lesson Ash gives, boasting he could throw a Poké Ball just as well as Ash could. Thomas proved his amazing ball throwing skills by going completely off target and hitting Piplup in the face. Dawn begins to get worried about how she would fare in teaching Thomas. During her coordinating class she uses Zoey's advice of keeping in mind that the Pokémon are the real stars and provides a good introduction to coordinating, which obviously did not impress Thomas. Angrily, to prove her mettle, Dawn unleashes Mamoswine and Cyndaquil to perform Flame Ice, illustrating a move combination for the aspiring Coordinators. Dawn also takes the opportunity to unveil Ice Chandelier, a combination involving Pachirisu's and Mamoswine's, which started out fantastically but petered out with a not so fantastic hiccup.

Dawn works on Ice Chandelier, determined to perfect it, her initial idea of having Pachirisu spin while using Discharge coming from Thomas' criticism on how boring the combination looked with both Pokémon standing still. However, Pachirisu gets too dizzy and the combo fails once again. While Dawn struggles to work out the kinks in her moves, Jessilina has won the Neighborly Contest, earning praise from Johanna on her Seviper's brilliant Haze and exquisite Poison Tail attacks.

Dawn modifies Ice Chandelier by having Buneary create a bigger ice ball around Pachirisu using Ice Beam while twirling and having Pachirisu run in the ball while using Discharge. The move succeeds! In the revelry, Thomas and Piplup unexpectedly hug, a friendship having been formed between the two as they cheered Dawn and her Pokémon on.

Later on, like Brock suspected, Thomas actually liked Piplup but out of frustration from not being able to say it, ended up teasing Piplup. The child apologised profusely to Piplup who genially accepted his sincere feelings.

As night falls, Johanna returns, sharing with the gang on how amazing Jessilina was and how enjoyable the Neighborly Contest was along with extreme gratitude to the trio for saving her seminar. The episode ends with Johanna gifting Dawn a brand new dress to wear at the Grand Festival, along with wishing good fortune for Ash and Dawn in fulfilling their dreams.

Major events



 * and meet up with Johanna.
 * Jessilina enters the Neighborly Town Pokémon Contest and wins, earning her fourth Ribbon.
 * perfects a new combination move, which she calls Ice Chandelier.
 * Dawn receives a new outfit for the Grand Festival from her mother.

Humans

 * Jessie
 * James
 * Johanna
 * Thomas
 * Children
 * Marian
 * Mr. Contesta
 * Mr. Sukizo
 * Restaurant customers
 * Mr. Contesta
 * Mr. Sukizo
 * Restaurant customers
 * Restaurant customers

Trivia

 * Professor Oak's Big Pokémon Examination:
 * This is the first episode to feature all of, and 's Pokémon on hand since Uncrushing Defeat!, almost thirty-five episodes ago.
 * In this moment, is shown to be released along with Brock's Pokémon, while the rest of Ash's came after. It is unknown if this was an error; however, it should be noted that all the Pokémon were released in groups of four.
 * Music from Pikachu's Rescue Adventure, Pikachu & Pichu, Spell of the Unown: Entei, Jirachi Wish Maker, Destiny Deoxys, and Lucario and the Mystery of Mew is played during this episode.
 * The dub title comes from the phrase "teaching the teacher".
 * Team Rocket doesn't blast off or recite their in this episode.
 * This is the first episode when Nurse Joy wasn't a judge for a Pokémon Contest.

Errors

 * When Johanna thanks our three heroes for volunteering to teach her class for her there is a yellow blotch on Johanna's face and a dark blotch in the sky for a single frame right before the scene changes to Ash and Pikachu.
 * After Ash returns his to his Poké Ball, Gible reappears again behind him during the next scene and disappears again afterwards.

Dub edits

 * Johanna's seminar was renamed to My Very First Pokémon Coordinator Class (Japanese: 初めてのポケモンコーディネータースクール My First Pokémon Coordinator School).

In other languages
Wenn der Lehrer von den Schülern lernt! EP636 DP167 DP編第167話 精灵宝可梦 钻石＆珍珠 第165集