From the Coach's Perspective - Questions for Educators

This year, I am once again fortunate to be coaching the Grade 8 Boys Basketball team at Delta Secondary.  Last week, WE held our first practice of the season.  Tired after a full day, I found myself energized by an evening of coaching. Afterwards, I found myself thinking that there are a lot of lessons from coaching that could be applied to teaching.


Collaboration
In the past, I have been a part of many different coaching arrangements.  I have been a head coach, an assistant coach, coached on my own and coached with others.  Coaching by myself was never a situation I favored.  It is a very lonely, isolating feeling when you don't have anyone with whom you can share and discuss your ideas.  This season, for the third consecutive year, I have been fortunate to be part of a team of coaches.  It is a very positive experience to co-plan practices, challenge each other's ideas and assess our team's progress together.  As I eluded to in a previous post, 'OUR ideas are better than YOURS and MINE'.


Mentoring
A number of years ago, I was fortunate to have a couple of my former players join my coaching staff.  It was a tremendous experience to work with them, hear their ideas and incorporate their thinking with mine.  Soon after, they took on their own teams.  Interestingly, my phone continued to ring as they would share their successes and challenges with me. The difference was that I was now the one offering my ideas and suggestions to them, only some of which they would choose to incorporate.  Most importantly, having a support network with whom they could share ideas, look for advice and receive some reassurance from was critical to their being successful early on.  For so many reasons, this was a rewarding experience: inspiring former players to become coaches, watching the influence they had on young people, learning with them and finally, mentoring them.


Caring
If you've ever coached kids, you can attest to the fact that kids connect differently with you when you coach them.  Why is this the case?  First, as players and coaches on the same team, we share a common goal.  We develop closer and more personal relationships with each other.  As coaches, we publicly demonstrate that we are pulling for our players and in return, our players try as hard as they possibly can not to disappoint us.  Most importantly, our players know regardless of whether they have a great game or make a mistake, that we care about them and will care for them, not just as athletes, but as people.


Challenge
As a team, WE challenge ourselves to improve everyday.  Each practice we expect our players to take a step forward and further develop specific skills.  We design drills that challenge our players to execute a skill that they are not fully comfortable in doing yet.  At a recent workshop, Dr. Dennis Shirley said 'learning happens when we dive into an area we aren't comfortable in'.  Nowhere is this more applicable than in any one of our practices.  To ensure that our players are willing to take the risks necessary to learn new skills, we emphasize to them that practice is a safe place to make mistakes.   


The same applies for us as coaches.  Each season, we challenge ourselves to adapt to new situations and new players, devise new strategies and continue our learning of new coaching philosophies and techniques.  Whether it be developing our own new ideas, improving old ideas or incorporating ideas we have learned from others, we strive to be lifelong learners.  Similar to our players, in our quest to improve, we know we will make mistakes however.  As players and coaches, it is important to remind ourselves that often, the best learning come from making mistakes.


At this point I will return to the initial reason for this post...lessons for teaching, or should I say questions for educators?


Collaboration
What common themes or topics are you and some of your colleagues interested in improving? Would it be more effective if you worked together with others?  Where could you collaborate? When could you collaborate? How could you collaborate?  At school, common prep time, collaborative planning time, PLN...


Mentoring
Do you know a colleague who is teaching a new course, is new to the school or new to teaching?  How might they be feeling? How might you be able to support them?  Have you even connected with them? How might you learn from mentoring a colleague?


Caring
Nobody doubts you care about your students.  But, do your students know you care about them? How have you demonstrated to your students that you care?  Is there a student who you haven't been able to establish a positive relationship with?  What could you do to improve the relationship?


Challenge
Are you meeting your students where they are? Are you providing appropriate level challenges for each of your students?  Have you created an environment where it is safe to make mistakes? Are you challenging yourself to continue learning?


I am committing to asking myself these questions on a regular basis with the goal of improving student learning.  Are you asking yourself these questions?