CONNECTIONS: Teaching Should Be More Like Coaching
By Jeff Zoul
“In the end, it's about the teaching, and what I always loved about coaching was the practices. Not the games, not the tournaments, not the alumni stuff. But teaching the players during practice was what coaching was all about to me.”
John Wooden
Prior to becoming a school administrator, I served as a classroom teacher for eighteen years. My very first job was teaching 1st grade; my final teaching assignment was 12th grade English. During those eighteen years, I also served as a coach; although I coached football, baseball, and golf, my true coaching passion was basketball. Although I loved serving as a classroom teacher at all levels, I must admit that near the end of my teaching career, there were many days that my basketball practices seemed to go much more smoothly and were much more productive than my English lessons. I sensed that my basketball players were learning more about basketball than my English students were learning about reading, writing, speaking, listening, and language skills. Unfortunately, when things are not going as well as we wish, it is sometimes difficult to discern exactly why when we are in the actual moment. However, after time passes, it often becomes much easier to look back and learn why. As I sit here today, I realize my English lessons would have been much more productive if they were a whole lot more like my basketball practices.
This is somewhat embarrassing to admit now that I know better, but at the time, my English class was more about me than it was about my students. I did most of the talking, students either learned or did not, and, truth be told, I wasted a fair amount of time during my allotted instructional minutes. As soon as my last class of the day ended, I would quickly change clothes and head straight to the gym for practice. Suddenly, everyone was engaged. Moreover, these athletes were working harder than me and learning a great deal in the process. What made the difference? I could probably list quite a few answers, but these five really stand out to me more than 15 years later as difference makers:
Planning: As a basketball coach, to say I was a meticulous planner would be an understatement. I only had 90 minutes of time before the next team needed the gym and I needed 120 minutes. As a result, I planned each practice from minute 1 to minute 90. We never practiced for 89 minutes; we always used all 90. It was not unusual to run certain activities for precisely 3 minutes and 21 seconds or 7 minutes and 49 seconds. I literally used every second of the 90 minutes for purposeful activities designed to help my players become better at the game of basketball. My English classes, on the other hand, were a tad more random and it was not unusual for me to simply “wing it.” I was known to get sidetracked with stories and might even end class a bit early, allowing students to “do their homework.” I wish I had planned my English lessons as intentionally as I planned each basketball practice.
Practice: During my 90 minute basketball practices, there was a great deal of time devoted to….practice. Kids on my teams actually practiced skills I was teaching them. There was not a single aspect of a game situation that we did not practice, from the opening tip, to the crossover dribble, to the way we sat on the bench during a timeout, to the way we wore our uniforms. We practiced everything. Meanwhile, in my English classes, there was not a lot of in-class time devoted to practicing any skills I was teaching. Although we would read regularly and there was some time devoted to writing, little of this was deliberate practice, designed for the students to improve as readers and writers in specific areas. I wish I had designed opportunities for students in my English classes to deliberately practice skills they needed to become better.
Feedback: During my basketball practices, I provided loads of feedback. What’s more, it was timely and specific feedback. I might watch a player shoot a few free throws, then stop him to share specific things I noticed, suggesting he try changing one small part of his free throw routine or technique. Then, he would shoot again and I would provide additional feedback. In my classroom, I provided little in the way of useful feedback, rarely moving beyond, “Good job.” Moreover, my feedback on student writing often came days after an assignment was turned in and well after it would do the student writer any good. I wish I had focused more on providing feedback in my English classes and less on grades.
Mini lessons: At times during basketball practices, I led direct, whole group instruction. Whenever I was introducing a new inbounds play, for instance, I would take over and explain the play, showing the team where each person should move and when. These lessons tended to be only as long as necessary in order to get the kids started practicing the play themselves, at which point, we would be back to the practice - feedback - practice loop. In my English classes, however, there were days when I spent the entire period teaching a lesson on grammar, poetry, or the research process. I wish I had started each class off with no more than a 15- or 20-minute mini lesson and then allowing students to dig in and start working on the mini lesson skills.
Spiraling: In basketball practice, we never truly mastered any skill. When long-term planning, I always made sure to schedule times to spiral back to drills related to shooting, dribbling, passing, and defense so as to continue getting better at these foundational skills. On the other hand, in my English classes, once we finished a unit on any topic, I rarely, if ever returned to those concepts. Students either got it the first time or we moved on without them getting it. I wish I had planned on circling back to big ideas in my English curriculum throughout the school year to ensure that students truly learned and retained essential content and skills.
I worked really, really hard as a classroom teacher. I worked really hard as a basketball coach, too, but during practices, my athletes were working a whole lot harder than I. Moreover, they were learning and growing more as basketball players than my students were growing as English students. It seems so obvious to me now, but at the time I was doing the best I knew how as a teacher. I honestly think I could do much better today--and I would start by “coaching” more and “teaching” less in my classroom. As John Wooden suggests, coaching is actually all about teaching. Teaching the students we serve by coaching them in our classrooms is one thing we can do to make our schools better.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
“A star wants to see themselves rise to the top. A leader wants to see
those around them become stars.”
Simon Sinek
DAILY INSPIRATION EDUCATOR
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In this book, Parker explores the habits, practices, and mindset necessary for growth as both an educator and a person. This book is grounded in the belief that when you invest in better care of yourself, you can better serve and lead others. Applying those insights is the challenge. Each chapter begins with a mental image and unpacks specific areas for cultivating personal or professional growth. Chapters end with reflection questions to help you take immediate actions for thoughtful application and improved outcomes. Do yourself a favor, and read ahead to pause, breathe, and flourish! Check out more here.
ACTION GUIDES:
Our Action Guides are tools to accompany best selling books by Jimmy Casas: Culturize: Every Student. Every Day. Whatever It Takes and Live Your Excellence: Bring Your Best Self to School Every Day. These Action Guides are road maps to taking action steps based on the ideas found in Culturize and Live Your Excellence so that our schools can best serve the students of today. If you are conducting a book study group, seminar, class, or professional development event based on either book, these Action Guides will serve as a resource to help you organize your sessions and work with your group. They provide assistance to staff developers, superintendents, principals, team leaders, college professors, and other educational leaders who are working with teachers to develop their professional skills. To help you plan and organize your study sessions, the Action Guides are divided into the following six sections:
Reflections: These are short thoughts on key sections of the chapters from each book.
Critical Concepts: These are simply bullet-point summaries from each section of the books and are presented here to help you review and focus your thoughts.
Questions to Consider: These questions are designed to reinforce your understanding of critical concepts and will promote constructive conversation among those participating in the study group, workshop, or class.
Writing to Reflect: These reflective journal prompts help you consider what you have read as well as discussions in which you have engaged to independently work through essential issues, recording what you have learned and what you are thinking about in writing.
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CONNECTEDD’S TAKE FIVE
Chats to Check Out: #LeadLapChat - Saturday mornings at 9:30 am CST on Twitter. Join co-moderators Burgess_Shelley and @BethHouf to discuss how we can make school amazing for students and staff.
Podcasts to Ponder: School Leadership UnearthED. For deeper, different, dialogue on the topics that matter most to educators, follow along with lead anchors Dr. Brad Gustafson (@GustafsonBrad) & Ben Gilpin (@BenjaminGilpin) and their outstanding guests. Learn more here
Blogs that Make Us Better: Jennifer Hogan blogs at The Compelled Educator. Jennifer is an assistant principal in Alabama who often focuses on encouraging the heart, coaching, a “just do it” philosophy, and a desire to help others be the best that they can be. Learn more here and follow Jennifer on Twitter: @Jennifer_Hogan
Teaching Technique to Try: Analyzing Images. Learn more about this teaching technique here, via Facing History and Ourselves, whose mission is to use the lessons of history to challenge teachers and their students to stand up to bigotry and hate.
Eyes On Culture: We believe that culture is a true difference maker in any classroom, school, district, or organization. As a result, we focus much of the work we do on creating and maintaining positive and productive cultures. We define culture as: The norms, attitudes, behaviors, beliefs, values, traditions, celebrations, and myths that comprise any group of people working together. Or, as Roland Barth once said, “It’s simply the way we do things around here.” Creating and maintaining a classroom, school, or district culture that is truly excellent requires intentionality on the part of all stakeholders. How can we create cultures of excellence?
Feel free to share your thoughts via Twitter: @ConnectEDDBooks We would love to hear from you!