Coaching sports and schools

Teamwork

Schools are all about kids or at least we say we are.  Coaches bring the best out of their players.  My question is do we do both jobs with the same strategies and passion?

Coaches know their players.  They know their strengths, their weaknesses, their likes, dislikes, home life... they know what makes them tick.  They watch countless hours of film to help the player become better as well as to help the team.  They work very hard in "extras" to help them become better...weight room, camps open gyms, the list is endless.

Do teachers devote that same amount of time to creating better students?  Lets address some of the immediate arguments to consider:
 1. Teachers have way more students per day than coaches do.
 2. The district puts lots of demands on my time and I cant make more hours in a day.
 3. They have more coaches than just me.

So lets ponder the answers to these points.  First it is safe to say that most middle school and high school teachers do have substantially more students than the typical team,   Teachers are sometimes isolated to a certain age group, juniors or 7th grade as example.  Coaches usually have four plus years to have kids in a program.  The question now becomes how do we address them.  This might be a difficult discussion because it challenges some of the restrictions schools want to place on teachers.  Social media can help teachers connect and get better information to help build these relationships.  As I talked about earlier, amazon knows us better than most teachers even try to know students.  Students share who they are but are we willing to look.  A better question is, if we don't look, is it a sign of us not caring?

Lets discuss the issue of time.  There are only 24 hours in a day and we can't change that, fact stated.  Teachers college preparation does not involve a big component of time management skills.   This must change.  Teachers and schools need to look to maximize time we have together.  This line of thought could follow a silicon valley mentality.  Lunches, be creative and plan this time to be time that is productive learning time.  Thinking of walking lunches for kids and teachers...very good multi-tasking and non formal time.  This is an example of how education continues to look at the old problem with old glasses about what has been done.  If time is needed how can we get it?  There are solutions being used by districts but the best options we may not have even been contemplated yet.  Be brave, take a chance

Lets address the ratio of players to coaches.  Most teams are in the 10 to 1 ratio and most classes are 10 up to 30  to 1 so yes the numbers are greater.  What is perfect class size?   This question can elicit lots of different opinions.  Lets make an assumption that 20 is the golden number.  So 20 to 1 is larger than the basketball team, if we take into account all the coaches.  If we apply a coaching model suddenly the head coach has a large number to account for.  The assistant coaches are the experts in the specific area the team and coach needs.  Who is accountable?  The head coach.  In a classroom, how can the head teacher create awesome assistants?  This is where education can  re-invent itself.  Let's start with non teacher in-school resources.  Janitors, secretaries, cook staff, aids and administrators are all possible assistant coaches, but we have to look at this differently than we have. Let's take this and step back into coaching.  When I coached basketball I had an ex collegiate player come in and work with my post players.  We discussed what I needed our post to be able to do and he expressed what he was going to work with them on.  After week one I signed him up to come in twice a week all season.  As a teacher we need to look out for and find the many experts that can add to our coaching staff.  We have retired professionals to college students to stay at home parents.  These assistant experts can be in the classroom as well as virtually through one of the many connecting technology tools we have available.  Teachers need to create their staff and develop their team.

Some of the best solutions for educational issues might be taken right from the field or arena.  My bigger concern is are we brave and bold enough to try them.