Teaching like a Coach

Many people compare education and teaching to building something, but to me, it's more a sports team such as football.

Before you can do anything you need the players (or students) and a coach (or teacher) to work with them to improve what they know and/or provide them with more useful information. The coach can't do this alone though, he/she also needs to have a team to work with; this team may consist of the manager of the team (principal), a team of specialist trainers (specialist teachers, i.e. art or music), a psychologist, a medical doctor, and/or a physical therapist (paraprofessional). When players are injured or impaired in some way, the doctors can be used to provide services to them (such as students with special needs are provided services in the classroom). Also, it is important for the coach not to overlook the work done with the specialty trainers; some players may be better at punting for example, while another player is a faster sprinter. This information can be used to help place the players in the position they will best succeed in. All of these people form a team that works together with the coach to try and best prepare the team for the game. Even still, the coach may not always work alone, he may also converse with coaches from other teams or minor leagues about different ways of doing things. This is the same way teachers work with other teachers in an inclusion school. Even more indirectly, the team will work with community organizations to promote their games and help local charities and maintain a well-rounded appearance. Schools should also work with community organizations to get the students involved and interested in the community. This will be beneficial to them in the long run.

Now that we have the team, we need to ensure that all the players are aware of the rules of the game and their goals, just as teachers must know the rules of the classroom and school as well as their goals for the class. From there they must create a game plan (or lesson plan in school) for how they are going to achieve those goals. They can be creative in these plans, and actually that is encouraged so that the other teams are unable to predict what they are going to do. In school teachers are encouraged to be creative in their ways of teaching in order to reach all the students, move with the times and keep things interesting for the kids. In developing these plans, the coach/teacher may even use past game plans to learn from and expand from. They will teach their team about what happened in the past and how they can learn from it. This is the same way teachers should teach history or science to their students today.

Other information that should be provided to players is how to stray away from the illegal use of steroids or even drugs and alcohol. All of these things can be detrimental to their ability to perform in the game. Putting an emphasis on this in schools as well helps to lower the rate of students at risk. This is also another reason the psychologist can be helpful to have as a member of the team.
After a bunch of small games or tests where they are up against other players or students, the team will move to the playoffs where they will face bigger tests, such as the MCAS in MA. This all leads up to the SAT of games...the Superbowl. Here they are up against all the best players in the league. The same when you take the SATs, your scores (once submitted to a college) are being compared to those of all the brightest students as well. If they win the Superbowl, they win acceptance to their ideal college.

Without a motivated and interested coach dedicated to working with his diverse team, the players never would make it to the playoffs never mind the Superbowl.
I learned the importance of all of this in my ELED 100 course and will forever carry that knowledge with me. I hope to one day help lead a classroom of children to their Superbowl as well.