Freewrite = FOOTBALL TALK

My first season as a coach was more fun than I could imagine. I had the opportunity to start coaching in the summer—before school actually started. This was very beneficial because I was able to meet a bunch of kids before the school year started. Moreover, I was able to build relationships with the middle and high school coaches.

            I came in with only one expectation, and that was to work very, very hard. I knew that I would not get outworked in whatever capacity I was chosen to coach. Thankfully, I was able to come in and immediately insert my ideas about how things should be run. I had a chance to implement new workouts, practice drills, etc. The head coach was tremendously supportive as I learned how to coach.

            I was charged with the duty of being the offensive coordinator. I was definitely overwhelmed at first, but I quickly let my excitement outweigh the overwhelming feeling. All of this happened before school started. Once school started coaching became really tough for a while. I realized just how much time I wouldn’t have. I had to start planning my whole day, not just my lessons in the classroom. The practice situation compounded the stress. Since the old locker room at the middle school was being used as a classroom, we had to work out a way to use a locker room at the high school. Also, the middle school practice field was being installed, so we had to practice on the outfield of the high school softball field. My task at the end of school was to get all of the football players to my classroom, take them over to the high school, and then walk them back across the way to the high school softball field. Plus, I was the only coach out there for the first 45 minutes of practice because the other coaches drove buses. Nevertheless, I eventually settled into this role and practice proceeded smoothly.

            The season was a roller coaster!!! We started the season with a 35-0 home-opener loss. It was most disappointing. We absolutely laid an egg in the first game, and we didn’t seem to care about football at all. I wasn’t sure how the coach would react to our offense not scoring any points. The next game was away, and we lost 2-0. Yeah, we snapped the ball out of our own endzone. That means that the team that beat us didn’t have to touch the ball to score points and beat us. We were all disheartened. This was the second week in a row with “0” points. We were excited and confident about the next week. We battled hard in the first half and held the game to a 0-0 tie. Sadly, we came out and turned the ball over immediately in the second half. Gave up a big play for a touchdown, and eventually lost 14-0. At that point I was completely frustrated and beginning to question whether I should have been calling the plays. The coaches remained supportive, which was good. I wasn’t sleeping after losses, and I was taking the stress out on my students the day after the game.

            The next week was Homecoming. I knew we would be in great position to win against our rivals. We came out with a lot of energy, and it just felt like it was our night. The game was 0-0 all the way through regulation. We allowed them to score on the first play of overtime; then we allowed the subsequent conversion. So we held them scoreless for 32 minutes, but gave up a quick score in about 5 seconds. Then, we had our chance. We scored on third down and now it was time for the conversion. We were stopped two yards short, and homecoming ended just like that. I was devastated. I’d gotten up for the game like I was a student myself. I promised my boys after that game that I would do whatever it takes to make sure that we turned our season around. The next week we played an away game against a really, really good team. We came out and forced an interception and a fumble. Nevertheless, we couldn’t capitalize. We went into halftime down by only 8 points. We ended up losing the game 36-8. It was absolutely demoralizing. It seemed like we had found some fight, but we laid down in the second half. The coaching staff knew that the kids weren’t having fun at that point. But, we had to press on. Something happened between that Thursday night and that next Monday’s practice.

            Our kids found a new attitude. We were 0-5, but we didn’t practice like losers. There was still an excitement in the air because we had three home games left to finish the season. We prepared better than any other week. We came out and put up points in the first half, and played defense like madmen. It was a dominating victory; we won 24-22. We gave up a late touchdown, but I loved how we were able to close the game out. It was like we learned how to play a complete game, and win, in three days. I jumped higher than I ever jumped for a pass when I played. It was literally one of the happiest moments of my life. I told the boys to stay excited, and stay hungry; they did! We came out the next week, after fall break, and won the game 40-8. Utterly dominating! We got a chance to play a lot of 7^th graders, and the whole team had fun. It was a great win. But the boys knew that we still had to finish strong. Our last game was against a formidable opponent. We came out on fire, scoring on our first two drives. We went into halftime up by 16 points. We came out a bit lazy in the second half, but we held strong. We didn’t score again, but we ended up winning 24-14. We finished the season with a 3-game winning streak, after a 0-5 start. I couldn’t have been more proud. I didn’t know how emotionally invested I would get as a coach, but I’d go through all of the emotions again. I was pretty sad when the season was over. I’m already looking forward to spring workouts, then summer workouts, then next season. I can’t wait!!!

Reflections on Chapter 4 (Assessments of Literacy and Content Knowledge)

It is interesting to think about assessment as it relates to literacy growth and content learning. Since I teach reading, literacy and content learning seem to be very much intertwined. Although learning the objectives and competencies spelled out in the framework aren’t all related to literacy, literacy must be attained before we can think about mastering those things. It is so hard to really get into DOK 2 and 3 work because of the unbelievable amount of illiteracy. I want to have assessments that are centered around DOK 2 and 3-because that’s what they are most heavily tested on-but I still have to take time to work on letter sounds and phonetic blends. I feel like I’m assessing the students on their level, but still not benefiting them like I should because it doesn’t challenge them. Nevertheless, if I don’t include a good amount of those assessments all of the students would fail. So, this is the quandary I’ve found myself in after the first 9 weeks of school.

It almost seems that the heavy focus on the MCT2 has taken too much emphasis off of scholastic achievement and the grades the students make in their academic classes. I’m not going to say that they don’t matter, but I feel like a school year would be considered successful if a student scored “Advanced” on the MCT2 and made all “F’s” on their report cards. It has definitely affected student, teacher, and administration mindset when it comes to this issue.

My favorite part of chapter 4 was the discussion of Informal, Authentic Assessments of Students. I love when I have a great lesson with a good amount of guided practice, with about 15-20 minutes left for individual practice. Although the kids are turning the work in for a grade, I can walk around and give additional help. It really supports one of the critical characteristics discussed on page 96. “2. They are so closely related to instruction that assessment and instruction become virtually indistinguishable.” Essentially, I am teaching and explaining for the duration of the period, but I can go around and rephrase things based on certain students’ needs and clarify anything that is still cloudy or confusing. I think that I’m slowly getting better at interpreting data in an explicit and reflective manner-as admonished by the writers of the textbook. I can only get better at the diagnostic teaching through experience. Nevertheless, I am learning to read students (i.e. facial expressions, body language, unusual habits).

This goes right along with the observational assessment discussed on page 99. Figure 4.3 made me think about how many times I’ve seen these behaviors in my classroom already. I now see that they are avoidance techniques. Regretfully, I’ve not watched closely enough to address these behaviors and intervene. That will be my goal for the next 9 weeks. I want to be more observant; that keen observation will allow me to make the proper adjustments through informal assessments. This will ultimately help me put the students in a better position to excel on the formal assessments…..that will be on DOK 2 and 3 level, of course.