Monday, September 7, 2009
Athletics and Education
Happy Labor Day everyone! Seeing as I am the first to blog I am going to take advantage of my leeway. While athletics is not very relevant to writing outside of sports journalism, I believe that it can impact students in a way that benefits them on the basketball court and in the classroom. The video I posted mentions some of the positive effects sports can have on students, especially those in lower-SES environments.
Sports embed values of teamwork, responsibility, preparation and determination in its athletes. This positive work ethic can also be transferred to the classroom, where student athletes will take the same values they developed through sports and apply them to their homework among many other academic challenges. Sports also offer students a positive and healthy outlet for the stress and anxiety that may build up during the school day. . . exercise! Although exercise may not always be the best cure for stress, there's always the coach to offer his or her advice to the student athletes regarding their situation. After all, coaches are some of the best teachers given the relationship they have with their athletes. For this same reason, a lot of student athletes can look back and appreciate the concern they received from their coaches.
Lastly, sports is an excellent way to motivate students to do well so they can continue on to college. Thanks to the NCAA, student athletes around the nation have the ability to receive athletic scholarships to various colleges and universities; an opportunity that is not offered to ordinary students. These scholarships offer hope for a college education to student athletes who otherwise would not be able to because of financial or academic reasons. Although the main focus of most of these athletes is on their sport instead of their education, at least they are receiving a degree while pursuing their passion.
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I think that it is very crucial to point out the importance of athletics in school in general. As mentioned today in class, it gives students the opprotunity to meet new friends and have an outlet for their frusteration or stress in other areas of their lives. I think that journaling about individual performance is a great way for students to evaluate their performances without the judgement of their teammates or coaches. Athletics also teaches children teamwork and communication skills. Teamwork is a good characteristic to have when writing because through collaboration of students and their peers, they are able to bounce ideas off of one another regarding ways that they can improve their writing skills. I think that working in groups and seeing other student's work is a helpful tool for children to develop a passion for writing. Colin also brings up a good point about sports journalism. This is one of the most obvious connections that is drawn between athletics and writing, but it is a career that we do not hear about all that often. I think highlighting this position would draw an interesting connection between athletics and writing and hopefully teach the students about setting goals for themselves. As I mentioned before too, communication is essential in developing writing skills and modeling writing after stories and skills developed in everyday life. Communication between students and between students and their teachers is an important way for students to hopefully develop their passion for writing while being helped by the ideas of their peers.
ReplyDeleteAthletics can certainly be an influence in students’ ways of writing. Athletes are able to blow off a lot of steam through their exercises on a regular basis but they could also write. Some coaches encourage or even require athletes to write down certain things they want to accomplish in the season and even after. Like Sarah was saying in class today, some coaches have their athletes write down their plan and what they want to get out of the sport. Then the coach works with them on it so that they can succeed in the way they want. Athletes have to be responsible and determined. Both of these qualities can be taken in the classroom setting when it comes to writing and assignments. A lot of student athletes have more motivation to get work done because they are trained to get to the end and that can help a lot when it comes to school related things.
ReplyDeleteThe last sentence of this blog caught my attention, “although the main focus of most of these athletes is on their sport instead of their education, at least they are receiving a degree while pursuing their passion,” because I think Colin is right, most people do find athletics to have a negative impact on education, but the reality is in order to play on most school sports teams you have to keep up your grades and you get a lot of playing sport then most people realize. Athletics provides kids with skills in teamwork, communication, and physical activity. These are very important aspects of learning as well. They can take these skills with them to the classroom and apply them to their learning experience. As mentioned in class today, having a player write a journal about their game, practice, or goals, is a great way to incorporate writing with athletics. I also think it allows kids to communicate with their coaches in a different way other than vocally. For some students voicing their opinions or feeling isn’t easy, so this allows them the chance to get out whatever they may be keeping inside. Having the ability to work together is also important to writing as well; being able to listen to others suggestions and taking them into consideration can benefit everyone because others can see things you may not have realized, especially in writing. Physical activity is also a great way to keep the mind going and may help students get their creative juices flowing as they sit down to write a paper. I think athletics has a much more positive effect on learning then negative!
ReplyDeleteI love how in this video, the students were immediately excited to learn how to skate. Touching on what we talked about in class, I definitely believe it is important to get students excited about learning and then the instructor goes back and teaches the basics. This not only helps them obtain structure, but gives them a chance to explore a particular vision. I also really liked how the coach demonstrated the exercises first and then let the students try it out on their own. Students should learn to not be afraid to make a mistakes.
ReplyDeleteMany school administrators have a bias about athletic. However, sports can help instill life long lessons. For instance the coach did not let the students social circumstances affect their learning or the way he taught them. Skating on the ice helped them to be more "organized and responsible" for their actions. In addition to that he gave them constructive criticism as well as acknowledged the fact that they were improving. This is so essential in teaching because if a student feels like no one believes in them, then they will lose enthusiasm in their writing and immediately not like it. It is amazing to me that this video showed all of this information through an athletic program. Students as well as teachers can learn life long lessons no matter what subject or activity they stream it from.
I have to agree with Stephenette's comment about how excited the children in the video are to skate. Although the children are living rough lives, where they may not be able to experience the same as many other children around the world, they still look so happy and excited to skate. Times like these are crucial in a child's learning. Having fun while learning at the same time is so important and necessary!
ReplyDeleteReflecting back to what we discussed in class on tuesday, I have to agree, as a student-athlete myself, sports can be such a great outlet for stress and just to blow off steam. Colin's quote, "sports embed values of teamwork, responsibility, preparation and determination in its athletes," is so important and very true. Sports, along with other forms of extra-curricular activities like dance or art, truly help with discipline, time-management, and finding a balance in one's life. On tuesday we talked about how reflecting on sport competitions or practices in a journal, helps clarify what needs to be worked on, what's going well, and puts on paper some immediate emotions that some athletes might not bring up with other players, or even the coach. Writing and reflecting is important, and something I might take away from this blog!
Sports journals would be an excellent way to stimulate student's interest in writing and keep their attention. Routman even suggests sports as an example of a type of topic that would allow teacher to student and student to student bonding. Children are more likely to be passionate about their writing if they are knowledgeable of the topic and it pertains directly to them. Sports journals or writing about physical education can be extremely beneficial to children because it posses potential to raise their self-confidence significantly. For example, if a child were writing about the importance of their role as a teammate in a particular sport, they are more likely to be enthusiastic in sharing their personal experience with others. Writing about sports is another great way to create lesson plan diversity when teaching writing. Instead of having students do the same repetitive writing exercises daily, other subjects in the curriculum (such as sports/physical ed.) could be incorporated into writing to keep it fresh and engaging year round.
ReplyDeleteWhat a way to start off the year with a great blog post. I think that athletics is an amazing way to help students with writing. Having a team keep journals about their play is beneficial not only for their writing skills but also for their improvement in their sport. An idea for a classroom setting would be to have students watch a sports game of their choice and then write about it after. They could explain and explore new vocabulary that goes along with their sport as well as letting them write about emotions that they felt during the game. Another way to explore sports in the classroom would to be have students do some research on their favorite team. This would be much more interesting for them then to write a paper about a topic that they did not enjoy. Students have to want to write and put forth effort and having a fun topic to write about makes things so much better for the students as well as the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI think that this post on the importance of sports and education was a really interesting one. Not many people would connect sports and education but I'm glad you found a video to represent the two. For most of my schooling, sports and education were taught separately ... when you were in school, we would sit and learn and when you were on the field, we would play/do drills/activities, but never combine the two. But they really do go hand in hand. I used to play soccer and really enjoyed it but it only became all about the sport. Had I been able to connect education and writing with it, I think it would have been more enjoyable for me. I would have been able to connect more to the sport since I'm delving into my schooling and what-not. Sports journalism would also allow the students who are more academically than physically inclined to be more involved in sports, as some people enjoy writing more or taking down statistics. If more students had more to write about, the experience would be more personal.
ReplyDeleteI agree that athletics have a great potential in schools and many schools do no take advantage of it. Children were not designed to sit in desks all day, they really do learn the best by being involved and experiencing I feel. Designing lessons that get children to move and learn is an effective teaching method. At least that is what I have been discovering through classes we have been taking through Chapman. But I have tried it out on a few classes and it seems to be more effective than just lecturing.
ReplyDeleteI think that this was a great video and you made some excellent points Colin. As a person who played athletics my whole life, I feel a real connection from those things I learned through my sport as well as those things I learned from school. Athletics teaches you teamwork, some independence, and drive. I feel like all of those qualities are so important in the classroom. You must work independently to do your work and at times, work with others to complete homework and projects.
ReplyDeleteI also really like the idea of athletic journaling. I was actually required to do this for a few years at my junior college during our soccer season and it was so helpful. I was able to get out emotions and just write to write. It was something I wasn't graded on and it actually made me want to do it. I think this could be very helpful for those participating in athletics.