What I love most aside from watching the games are the teaching reminders that I get watching poolside as she engages in this highly complex game as she only started with foundational skills-aka she can swim. She never played a team sport before. She didn’t know the intricacies of the game, the nuances . She is constantly reacting and adjusting. Her ability to make split second decisions is now keen. She has evolved over the past four year to become a team leader. What I’ve learned from watching her are valuable teacher lessons too. Here’s a few:
1. Her coaches see the whole pool, how players work with together. During a game my player or learner is in her space, her field of vision and only her field of experience to rely on. We need to not become so farsighted that we forget how nearsighted our students or newbie teachers can be and stay positive as they work with us.
2. As teachers, we need to provide multiple opportunities of for practice and remember that context matters. Just because I practiced the same shot over and over again for 35 minutes during practice doesn't mean when I get in the game, I will be able to execute it under more stressful conditions that might include humans drowning me.
3. Your team matters. Everyone is rooting for your team. As my daughters says, “We need everyone in the pool and the ones not in it as well.” We need everyone in the building to support teachers as much as they can as they with students.
1. Her coaches see the whole pool, how players work with together. During a game my player or learner is in her space, her field of vision and only her field of experience to rely on. We need to not become so farsighted that we forget how nearsighted our students or newbie teachers can be and stay positive as they work with us.
2. As teachers, we need to provide multiple opportunities of for practice and remember that context matters. Just because I practiced the same shot over and over again for 35 minutes during practice doesn't mean when I get in the game, I will be able to execute it under more stressful conditions that might include humans drowning me.
3. Your team matters. Everyone is rooting for your team. As my daughters says, “We need everyone in the pool and the ones not in it as well.” We need everyone in the building to support teachers as much as they can as they with students.
We need everyone indeed! That reminds me of Fish! by Lundlin-- I remember someone saying how powerful educators could be if we could unite and swim/school in the same direction -- that direction being in support of one another and our differences! Love these lessons, especially the far/near sightedness reminder: see the whole pool.
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