IS THIS COACHING? My Experience With Distance Learning...So Far

This blog has not seen a new entry in a while. This will be my first post that is not 100% focused on basketball. But I'll tell you what it does have a lot to do with - coaching and teamwork.

The Coronavirus has put just about everything in a holding pattern throughout the world. Scary stuff. Please know that I understand how serious this virus is. What I'm about to write is about how this has impacted my professional life as a teacher, witnessing teamwork, servant leadership, and how much being a coach has helped me personally the past couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago the governor of our great state of Minnesota gave us the news that schools will not be in session as they typically would be over the next few weeks. Social distancing is now a very important thing to do. Those few weeks have now been extended for a longer period of time. The school I am fortunate to teach at gave our students a few days off before the start of our spring break. During those few days, our teaching staff had to come up with a plan to make this work. Wait, what? Distance learning? How? Our spring break was then used to continue working on a plan. Planning ahead and working with others for the betterment of others. That's coaching.

With the guidance of our administration, our staff rolled up their sleeves and went to work. There was a plan put in place for everyone; teachers, paraprofessionals, food service, custodians, community education, bus drivers, office staff, and everyone else associated with our school. It was incredible to see everyone pull together with the mindset of "What is best for the children and their families?" guiding us along the way. Leadership, planning, servant leadership, work ethic. That's coaching.

We are fortunate at our school that we have a 1:1 technology initiative for students in grades 3-12. My opinion is that this really helps with distance learning. It helps a lot. That being said, my first "wow!" moment was when I visited with teachers in grades K-2, and they shared with me that their plan was coming into place. They amazed me in how they could make a plan, and put that plan in place without the help of a technology device going home with their students. Incredible! Awesome! Taking the hand you are dealt with and making the most of the situation. How many times have you been short-handed in your coaching career with an injury, illness, being less talented, too small, too big, etc.? Coaching, teamwork, adapting. That's coaching.

I teach third grade in a K-4 building. Third and fourth-grade teachers had to come up with a plan to make distance learning a productive and positive experience for our students with the use of the technology device the students were taking home with them. Throughout our planning, we tried to make sure school work was as close to typical as it would be if we were in our actual school building. Having to do this when you aren't in the same room as your students is not easy. Why? Because it's very different. And it IS different...for now. Keeping school as typical as we can under these circumstances while still being productive is a challenge. But it's a challenge that can be met if we do what is best for everyone. Thinking about this as a basketball coach, I thought about how many times I had conversations with players and/or teams about doing what is best for the team. That entered my mind hundreds of times while planning with other teachers for distance learning. Egos were set aside, and the kids and families came first. As they always should. Servant leadership. That's coaching.

March 30th was the first day of distance learning for us. That day was not as stressful because I had prepared videos for the class that day, and touched base with kids and families via email. Easy enough. But then March 31st happened. That was the first day I was going to have two Zoom meeting sessions with my third-grade class. I had been in a Zoom meeting one time before this. Once! Now I had to organize and run one of these meetings with potentially 24 third-graders? And they were depending on me to know what I was doing? Oh boy. What would I do if I was a coach in this situation? Well, I would have gotten all the information I could. I would have planned and practiced ahead of time. And that's what I did. It worked. Was it perfect? No. But those third-graders figured it out on their end and we made it work. Trusting your students/players. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Show them how and practice the plan. That's coaching.

Parents. Thank goodness for our parents. The parents of my students have been extremely supportive of what we are doing. They have been supporting their own child to make sure they are getting things set up, organized, and that they are on time for Zoom sessions. Receiving a kind email from a parent during these trying times is an energy boost to our teachers that takes us a long way. From what I hear from my coworkers, they say the same. We are all grateful for them. I think the best thing we've done to get this support is communication. Our teachers communicate not just with the students, but also with the parents. Parents have a lot going on with their own personal and professional lives and now they have to help their child with a lot more school work than would be typically asked of them. There is a lesson in this for coaches. As coaches, we don't have to avoid parents. Embrace them. This doesn't mean you have to go out to dinner (when social distancing is over) with them or send them a friend request on Facebook. It doesn't mean a coach has to talk playing time with them either. However, it means communicating with parents and keeping the door open to communicate with them builds trust. It's good for the parent. It's good for the coach. This is coaching in today's world. That trust helps get you the support you need.

I am not so arrogant to believe that what our school is doing is the only way to do this. We will find glitches along the way and then we'll adjust. But I will tell you that the leadership and efforts that went into putting together a plan was AMAZING. This virus has forced us to communicate more as a team. It's forced us to communicate more with parents. It has forced us to communicate more with students. Communication is a big part of coaching.

Lessons can be learned in everything we experience. This virus has forced everyone to do things differently. Maybe we can all become better teachers, better coaches, and better people because of the experiences we have already had with it and will continue to have until we come out on the other side of this virus outbreak.

I wish you all good health during these crazy times.