INJURY PREVENTION
LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS: HAZING POLICY
TEACHING MENTAL SKILLS
In addition to the physical aspects of coaching, I also had the chance to learn about the mental skills associated with athletics. Both as a coach and athlete, I have experienced times where my mental limits were tested. This assignment in particular demonstrates an opportunity that I had to collaborate with peers to learn about mental skills and teach them to students. As a beginning coach, this assignment helped me think through how I would present new ideas to my coaching staff as well as my athletes; engagement is crucial to the success of new practices. Competitions only become more challenging as the season progresses (conference, regional, and state meet). Thus, maintaining an on-going discussion of mental skills throughout the season helps the coach and athlete reevaluate the mental skills effectiveness to make adjustments, as well as for these strategies to become automatic for the athlete.
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Any athletic experience has the risk of injury, and running is no exception. Especially in working with young adults, I need to consider that they are still growing, are learning the sport for the first time, and may play other sports (sometimes within the same season). Therefore, overuse injuries are common in running cross country such as shin splints, sore Achilles tendons, hip pain, and runner’s knee. Other injuries could occur during practice or race as well, such as ankle sprains. As a coach, I must know the signs of these injuries to prevent and assist in treatment. For injury prevention, I researched and formulated a series of exercises that allow runners to work on common injury areas with low impact exercises that still produce results. Such exercises include toe walking, wall toe raises, hero pose, full boat pose, warrior one, parasarita padottanasana (A, B, C, and D), and barefoot running.
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After going through various legal scenarios, I now see the various aspects coaches need to consider when preparing for their seasons including policies for student conduct, fan code of conduct, hazing, risk management, emergency action, and more. One assignment in particular addresses hazing. Unfortunately, many students report actions of hazing but do not recognize that it is hazing. Therefore, it is important to define hazing with students and parents with specific examples. Additionally, open communication for reporting hazing is vital, as some students could have concerns regarding peer reactions. Conversations about hazing before, during, and after the season help to prevent situations from occurring. Lastly, the hazing policy is designed to maintain a positive climate within the group that focus on the benefits of the sport and supportive team atmosphere.
Click here to read the hazing policy that I wrote for the cross country program.
OBSERVING TEACHERS
ADULT RUNNING CLUB
TEACHING: HIGH SCHOOL VS. COLLEGE
This artifact is about a former high school teacher who became a nurse and certified nursing assistant (CNA) teacher. In this case, the teacher struggles with attendance issues and focus of her students, and I make suggestions to help her improve her teaching. One of my main transformations in thinking demonstrated here is that teaching high school students (pedagogy) is different than teaching adults (andragogy). Adult learners have more life experiences, an established self-concept, and other responsibilities that set them apart from child learners. In addition, adults are likely to have prior knowledge about the topic of learning to either attach new meaning, or that will need to be “unlearned” if incorrect and learn the correct meaning.
Click here to read about how I suggest that the teacher improve her communication, effective feedback, and support for her adult learners.
Learning about teaching adults in a case study is one thing. Implementing my learning about teaching adults is another. I had the opportunity to find a group of adult learners, teach them, and have the support of our classmates and instructor along the way. My group of adult learners was the community running club that our cross country coaching staff established last summer (2014). In this experience, I was able to practice building a relationship with adults, discuss their previous experience, introduce running form and our training program, as well as provide effective feedback. At the end, I was able to reflect on the experience to improve the program for the future. Just as I teach my high school math students and runners, I find that sometimes I have more questions than answers. That is the wonderful aspect of having a community of educators for support in teaching, no matter what the age of the student.
Click here to learn more about my experience with establishing a community adult running club.
These artifacts demonstrate my observation of my colleague’s teaching and commentary on their lessons. The framework that I used for the pre-observation meeting, the observation, and post-observation meeting focused my attention on specific aspects of their teaching. The models shown here are from Enhancing Professional Practice: A Framework for Teaching by Charlotte Danielson (1996). The pre-observation meeting helped both the teacher and I discuss what feedback the teacher would like. During the observation, I used a list of things to look for (my “cheat sheet”) and took notes on evidence, rather than my perspective of the lesson. After the observation, I emailed the teacher and held a post-observation meeting. Through this experience, I learned a great deal about learning with and from colleagues regardless of our years of service, as well as how working together can improve the education of our students.
Click here for my pre-observation meeting notes and my post-observation notes.
COACHING
FACILITATING ADULT LEARNING
Coaching Athletes and Mentoring Adults
My showcase below exhibits the main aspects of my master's degree learning. The goals of my graduate degree are two-fold: develop an educational foundation for coaching and facilitating adult learning. My concentration in coaching involves physical, mental, and legal aspects. For leading teacher learning, I learned about setting up a classroom for adults, creating a community of adult learners, and providing effective feedback. These skills are ones that I apply to my cross country team and mentoring teachers. Below I provide a description of each artifact along with an underlined link to each assignment.
SPORTS NUTRITION & HYDRATION
At team camp and throughout the school year, we teach runners about our program’s workout plan, philosophy, and ways to optimize their performance. One key way to optimize performance that I promote is through nutrition and hydration. Effort put in to running affects performance, and so does what you put in your body. This Sports Nutrition and Hydration Handout relays information in a student friendly manner geared specifically towards our team. Sometimes this research-based information conflicts with social stigmas associated with “healthy” nutrition, body images, and other concepts students may bring to the table. My goal with this handout is to be informative, challenge misconceptions, provide time for students to ask questions, and keep the conversation light!
Another artifact geared toward proper hydration is my post-workout Recipe Cards. I loved creating this assignment as it joined interests of mine: running, cooking, and tailoring ideas to my team. I tested out these nutrition ideas with myself and then with my runners. After practice, I would share my treats and take in their feedback to make adjustments. After all, if no one likes the way these recipes taste, who’s going to eat it? In learning about post-workout nutrition for high school runners, I also noted the vitamins that runners tend to lose, as well as the amount of protein and carbohydrates that follow general post-workout guidelines. This way, my runners can experiment to make what works best for them!
My use of these artifacts has changed over time. We give the information to both the parents/guardians and students. The people most likely doing the grocery shopping, and the people who are actually going to utilize the information must both understand runner nutrition and hydration.
Click to read my Sports Nutrition and Hydration Handout and Post-workout Recipe Cards.
