Teachers/Coaches/Motivators
yuichi
Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
How do yall get kids to be more interested in Math, English, basketball, whatever?What are some tips.
yuichi
Urban sprawl 11,331 Posts
Comments
I've been assistant coaching a kids team in my free time.
From a psychological standpoint, I've heard that punishment is less effective than reinforcement.
Discuss....
Well yeah, positive reinforcement is always better than negative.
1) One on one attention. Kids crave one on one.
2) High intrest. With books I can do dinosaurs, or volcanos or mummies or fantasy or sports so it's easy. Math creates more challenges. I think baseball is great for math. When counting balls and strikes you are using base 4 and base 3. lots of stuff like that. $$$$ are not a bad way to teach money. If you know that 4 quarters equal a dollar you know fractions.
3) No testing.
Yuichi-
I've been coaching for the past 4 years, and our biggest thing is that on our court, you work hard to have fun. We don't allow any trash talking, and you will sit out if you complain to the ref. We run an offense that encourages ball movement throughout the team (in practice and scrimmages it's a turnover to pass the ball without cutting away afterwards) and try not to let any game become a one-man show. I've had kids go from being troublemakers throwing tantrums to team leaders who pass up an open 3-pointer so that they can share the ball with their team. Granted, it's not a typical program and we have a phenomenal director, but even when it's frustrating, kids really do get a lot out of it.
The motivation in our program really stems from kids competitive desire to become better basketball players, whether they're the worst or best on the team.
Check out the Positive Coaching Alliance for some real good stuff. I don't agree with everything they have to offer, but they are a good starting point. A good general rule is two or three positive comments for every negative one, so that when punishment or criticizm is made, it actually means something.
Somebody's not digesting the KNOWLEDGE NUGGETS?
This is an incredibly good look.
One key to coaching and motivation is to connect with passions. If you love something, teach someone about. Trust me they will appreciate your point of view. For example a lot of American history could be taught through popular music. I would rather approach it that way then through a text book. Using pop music also gives kids a chance to contribute since most are fairly literate on the topic.
Make it real. I went to a school that taught science backwards. That is to say we started with what is interesting about science and then worked backwards to the foundational knowledge that would help you understand the subject. For example, don't have kids memorize the periodic table. Show them what is cool about science, like making your own bio-diesel or how to make meth and then teach the science behind it. Math should be taught the same way. Pick a real world problem that interests the kids and then walk backward to understand it from a math perspective. My school produced a huge amount more science majors than declared on acceptance. The only school in the country to do so.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! Did you think this was actually a good idea?
Really, though, I think that would be an interesting science lesson, but you'd either be fired or heavily reprimanded for teaching it.
Making and bottling pop might be a better substitute...
I whole-heartedly agree with the last sentence especially. Good points!
The problem with my team is that the coach yells at them, always talks to them in a condescending tone of voice, and hardly ever praises them or pats them on the back. He has established himself as an authority figure, but it seems like kids are playing out of fear, rather than WANTING to play.
I'm gonna try to take over practices with my style of coaching and see how it goes.
Good stuff.
Basketball is so much harder to teach than math....
BasketBall is Math.
I remember a certain day this year, when me and llmod1 from London were trying to get back to my home after a digging trip by train. we were stuck in a car with a huge group of hyperactive kids that my girlfriend used to coach. we pissed ourselves laughing.
but i learned (from that trip and my girlfriend) that you have to award kids. serioulsy, once they notice that they/good behavior are/is being appreciated, things will get better.
nevermind...i don't know anything about those things. i only have a cat...
i'm a guide at the botanical gardens at my hometown, but i tend to get pissed at little kids that don't pay attention and i start to bug them in order to avoid big trouble. i'm not mean or anything. i smile all the time and try to strike up a converstaion with them. i always tell the bad kids to stand close to me and i ask them all the questions that were intended for the whole group...
I'll tell you. I didn't do to good at high school math. But out in the parking lot I was a whiz at converting grams to ounces to pounds to dollars. I can't remember why I had that skill.
Trigonometry.
I was under the impression it was Science, though.
with any subject you are trying to teach, its gotta be relevant to your audience or you are done. i teach nutrition in a high school (been working with youth for 12 years), and i'll be damned if we sit around memorizing what vitamins and minerals are in what vegetables and what fuck all they do. nope. like dude said abou tscience, start with the fun practical first...build the love. so we do a short nutrition piece and then cook and cook and cook. then we'll dig back and go into some detail.
kids want to PLAY ball and be good at it. make drills fun, exciting, strenuous, competetive. punishments should be things that strengthen their skills and make them tighter with the team...an example could be if in a scrimmage, there are three mised layups, the game is off and everyone does full court layup drills (there are ways ot make layup drills challenging too)
math...watch what presbo did on the wire. make shit relevant. get them to start running a fruit stand and keeping stats. do something REAL where they can see the benefit and need of mathematics.
demand a lot. have high expectations. have a sense of humor. be results oriented...but never forget the human element. dont be afraid to kick out a bad apple. sometimes it is the best thing for all parties involved.
sorry for the long post
have fun.
out
You teach high school, right?
This is fascinating...these three points you listed hit the mark exactly at main ideals/philosophy of the school I teach at- it's definitely an alternative model but for the most part it's based on those principals and how by doing these things you can still provide a challenging & authentic learning environment but things change 360?? when you give lots of 1-1 attention!
Yes.
I just got to reading this post. Thanks for your input.
I understand all of the things you said. The funny thing with many of these things (basketball and academics) is that some people find their passion/pride, much later than the initial context (mandatory extracurricular practice/games). I found my love for the game in college, when my pride kicked in at the gym, saying "Mawfugga, I may have been a bench warmer, but these nerds aren't taking me!". That and I saw dudes 2 times as good as me. That was inspiration and motivation.
I've just come to realize that basketball is one of the most complex sports to teach. Defense can be a whole quarter's worth of subject material......you can have theories, proven methodology, psychological facet of defense, and on and on.
They say experience is key to sound defense. I can not agree more. I'm playing the best defense in my life right now and it's not by coincidence.