As someone who has coached for seven years to young people and adults I was nervous to be delivering my first TEACHING session in a school. A school where I have previously coached various sports. The word teaching was not sitting well with me. I had a year 10 class and was teaching badminton.
I observed the teacher who introduced me to the group and what the group would be learning over the next few weeks. As a level 2 badminton coach I couldn’t understand why I was anxious and the nerves wouldn’t go away. All I was thinking at the time, I need to cover ‘x’ amount of things, I need to show differentiation, the group by the end of the lesson has to show they have learnt something, I need to show inclusivity, promote E&D. Then I heard my name “and over to Miss Khan”!
At this point I had to stop myself and say “get over yourself and treat this as a coaching session” (in my head of course).
I started by having the groups put the nets out, pick up a racket and shuttle (between two) and start rallying. Normally I would never do this, I would have them sat there for ten minutes whilst I explained it all. I then went on to ask the group what they thought I would cover in the first badminton session. Judging by the way the nets had been put they came up with the perfect answer “how to put badminton nets up and play”. The latter was vague so I extended the questioning as oppose to telling them. “Play what? What are the first things you have to in badminton to start a game”, the answers were coming good and fast.
As a coach I had always been taught to tell the group what you are doing and show them, good demonstrations make good players. Throughout my teaching course I am been told to let them do it, its student learning not teacher learning. I already know how to do it and it’s for them to understand and develop in their own way not yours. To a certain extend this is correct in sports , however at times you do need to give good demonstrations as some people may not know “ what a serve is , how to do a forehand clear”. Not the case in this instance so I let it be. It is equally as important to recognise that not everyone has to copy the way I do it, if they are comfortable and it is safe then its best for them to do it in their own style which suits them.
I then asked the girls to put the nets up correctly which they did through their own trial and error. I could see them enjoying the lesson and building in confidence. I allowed them to practice serving to each other and corrected them when needed. Without realising I was differentiating as I had smaller rackets and bigger shuttles, I was moving the girls around playing with partners similar to their ability levels. At one point I had them in 3’s where 1 was watching the other 2 and advising where they were going wrong with the serve “peer assessment” in the first lesson…really!
Finally the session came to a close, 1 hour had gone already! By the end of the lesson each and everyone one of the girls knew how to put nets up and away which they did. Knew the 2 types of serves and why each one is played and where the shuttle needs to land (Cross court). All this though effective questions and kinaesthetic learning. I felt I had had hardly said two words, did I not need to! The only plus would have been if they could have given me the perfect serve, however this may have been too much to ask as for most of them this was their first experience of badminton and as with anything, practice makes perfect. The main thing was they understood why it was done and how to do it.
The icing on the cake was the teacher telling me I was born to teach and the class learnt a lot from the lesson. Now off to plan the next lesson knowing that coaching and teaching are not a million miles apart.
The following day I was teaching a classroom lesson to year 11 girls on community sports. I found this lesson a lot more relaxed after the nerves of the practical lesson from yesterday. This was my time to gloat, I talked about my job as a community sports officer and what I do ,then sent them on a task of finding out what community sports facilities are in the area and what do they offer. I went one step further and challenged them by asking deep questions on the differences between a private facility and council facility, how sports benefits the economy, health and sports. They were in groups and will be presenting their answers to the class and me next week.
Finally the likes of Blooms , Kolb and coffield were making sense!