teaching

Lessons in Boundaries

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Samantha Faulhaber   I was in a play of The King and I back in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd grade. I was one of the King’s children. Being half-Asian probably didn’t hurt for casting. This has little to do with this newsletter except I now have, “Getting to NO you, Getting to NO all about […]

Play with Purpose

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Alex Sporticus   A games-based approach can be mistakenly considered as a game-as-teacher approach. This is because children can learn from playing the game. The mistake is not that children can learn from playing the game. Of course they can. Children in PE can learn: nothing at all something without us something from peers something […]

Giving AF (Part 3): Environments for Exploration

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Jereme Sanders   Part 1: Trust & Honesty Part 2: Awareness Before Advice   Through building this circle of awareness we can more effectively share discoveries rather than simple techniques. For example, often times in my own life it has been discovering the epiphany of a new technique, a breakthrough in strength/mobility or the overcoming […]

Giving AF (Part 2): Awareness Before Advice

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Jereme Sanders   Part 1: Trust and Honesty   “To give a person an opinion one must first judge well whether that person is of the disposition to receive it or not” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo, Hagakure   The next step, which should be happening concurrently with the first, is that of  our awareness of the […]

Giving AF (Part 1): Trust & Honesty

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Jereme Sanders   [AF in this instance means ‘Actionable Feedback’, but secondary title to this series is “Student Centered Teaching Practices”]   As a teacher we want to make sure we find the right answers for the problems that arise in our students. The answer may not always be the ones we are used to, […]

Students & the System

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Christine Ruffolo   Amongst other things, COVID-19 revealed how fragile the American educational system is, and how unadaptable it is to changing and evolving times.  Designed to churn out compliant workers, it conflicts with the world around them — a burgeoning economy of self employment (one marked by passion, creativity, and innovation), as well as […]

Curiosity Part 4: Unconditionality

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Austin Einhorn   We’ve already discussed that chasing your curiosity isn’t always going to result in candy and funny stories. Sometimes it’s going to result in nothing and sometimes it’s going to dust up uncomfortable emotions and hard truths. All but the most curious coaches will want to turn-heel and run. But that’s what I’m […]

Curiosity Part 2: Assumptions

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Austin Einhorn   Professional and collegiate athletes come into my gym all the time repeating nonsense from their other coaches (or the Internet and social media). They tell me what they think their problem is, “Austin, my glutes don’t contract.” I ask, “How do you know they are not contracting?” They realize they’re not sure, “My glutes just — […]

Curiosity Part 1: Beyond Assumptions

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Austin Einhorn   Consider the following lines: What do you see? Yes, there are two lines and a space between them. But what else could it be? What could it symbolize? What might bridge the two sides? The curious mind recognizes the gap and searches for what may exist in the space. Now, anything could […]