Coaching

One thing that you can do outside of teaching every day that will actually improve your teaching is coaching. Coaching is a nice way to get out of the classroom and still teach your students very important skills. Coaching is underrated in our society but data routinely shows that students that play sports have better attendance, better grades and less discipline issues. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of quality coaches; however, if you do have the time, its always great to volunteer to coach even if you can only do it one day a week.

I have had the pleasure of coaching at four different high schools in many different sports with many different students. I can honestly say that coaching has made me a better teacher than anything else that I have done since I have started teaching. Coaching is essentially teaching. You may be teaching a sport, but you are also teaching many different soft-skills that employers look for.

The best way to teach these soft-skills is to lead by example. I honestly think it is the most embarrassing thing when the referee gets yelled at by a parent or when a player thinks its okay to yell at a referee. Referee are people and they make mistakes. Sometimes they have good games and sometimes they have bad games. There is no need to ever yell at a referee. When coaches do this, it shows their athletes that it is okay to yell at and belittle a referee. That is not leading by the right example. Also, you should speak to parents about their behavior if they start to argue with referees, as parents can also be a poor example for some athletes.

Also, being organized and having a plan shows to the athletes that those same skills in the classroom can be used outside of it as well. There is no need for cussing in practice or at the game. Again, the field/ court is an extension of the classroom. By being out coaching, you build another connection with your students. You are more likely to meet their parents, either when they pick up their student or at a game. You can also do more one-on-one teaching. When I was coaching track I would always try to have a conversation with one of the athletes every day. Plus, you can let your guard down and joke around a little bit with them. You can play funny songs in the weight room or try to sing some Whitney Houston during a workout. Either way, its nice that your athletes can see you in a t-shirt and shorts and joking around a little bit.

Plus, its nice to sometimes compete a little bit with your students (I used to race my students at track practice at least weekly and even with a head-start, I still lost). You can try out new games at practice. If your students are having a good time at practice, then you can start to bring over some of that fun time in to class.

When coaching sports it is sometimes a little easier to see improvement with the students you work with and that can be very gratifying in the same way that it is dfor teaching. It is always super important to remember that the most important part of sports is great sportsmanship. I would rather coach a team that loses every game but the students have great sportsmanship, they improve and they have a good time, rather than coach a team that wins 10 state championships. Winning is fun but remember, you don't coach to win, you don't coach for yourself, you coach for the students and to help them.

Coaching is a great way to work on teaching and build better relationships with your students. Also, most of the time, the administrators will love it that you are helping out. See if there is one sport that you can help out with.

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