It's the first day of a new session of swimming lessons.
Staring at me from the deck is an angry 10-year-old with his arms crossed.
He's not getting in the lap pool.
The facility I teach at has two pools; a lap pool and a leisure pool. The leisure pool is shallow, with a zero-depth area and a 3-foot maximum at all other points. It's also significantly warmer than the lap pool. Preschool lessons and Levels 1 and 2 are taught in the leisure pool. Levels 3 and up are taught in the lap pool. This can cause some anxiety when a student levels up from 2 to 3. The lap pool is big, it's deep, and it's cold! Some students need to re-learn their skills in the "big pool", and gain confidence in the fact that swimming is swimming, whether you can touch the bottom or not. Most of the time, the transition can start in level 2, with an "adventure" to the big pool sometime during the session. Level 3 teachers understand that they may encounter hesitance or fear of the lap pool and can plan the first few lessons accordingly.
This is the situation I found myself in on the first day of lessons. My level 3 class consisted of three students, only one of which had ever been in the lap pool. The other two students, brothers, were not excited about getting into the water. In situations like this, it's good to take it slow but still push students to get over their initial apprehension. So I asked the students to climb in the water. And two of them did.
But not Zach.
He said no. There was no hesitation, no 'I'll try it but so slowly that we waste half the lesson', nothing. It was simply not going to happen. If he was a younger student, I may have chosen at that moment to pick him up and put him (slowly) in the water. Being 10 years old, I didn't feel like that would be helpful or appropriate. So what to do?
Eventually his mom stepped in with some word of encouragement (or a threat, I couldn't be sure) and he started to s-lo-w-l-y get into the pool. Great....progress. Now onto floats. Another emphatic no. At this point, I decided to play hardball. I stated my rule "everyone takes a turn", and moved him into a front float. I asked him to blow bubbles. He refused. I said "Ok, we can float until you blow bubbles". And I held him in a front float while I watched the other two students do their back floats. Then I asked him again to blow bubbles. "Fine" and he did. Victory! Only problem was, at that point the lesson was almost over, and all I had accomplished with the class was floats. This is not the way I would like to handle my lessons.
So after the lesson, I decided I needed a new game plan. I was not going to allow a 10 year old to power-trip me, but at the same time I realize that forcing someone to do something is not the most productive way to make progress.
So, what is this student's motivation? He wants to swim in the leisure pool. How can I use that to my advantage?
The next day, I wrote a list of tasks that I wanted to complete in this lesson, and stuck it to a kick board. When my students showed up, I made a deal with them. If we can complete all the tasks on this list, then we can spend the rest of the lesson in the other pool. If we all take our turn and try hard without stalling, we will have more time in the warm pool. If we can't finish all the things on the list, then we will not have time to swim in the warm pool.
Zach looked at the list, looked at me, and said "I'll do it". Huh? This from the kid who refused to do a float yesterday? But he did. He got in, he did the activities...and at the end of the lesson, he was smiling. And I kept my word....we spent the last five minutes in the leisure pool.
I'm now at the point with this class that I am actually working on skills. Zach is cheerful, excited to come to class, and improving every day. Whenever anyone in the class starts to hesitate in participation, all I have to do is pull out the "threat" of no time in the warm pool, and suddenly we have a renewed vigour for swimming!
This strategy works because it is a balance of teacher control and student control. As the instructor, I set the agenda and decide which pool we swim in. This is not up for debate by the students. But the students have control over how much time we spend in the leisure pool. Do the tasks when I ask, and we have more time in the warm pool. Stall or screw around, and we won't have any time left. This means I have to keep my word as well. I can't all of a sudden decide at the end of the lesson to add more tasks. I have to plan ahead and give students the reward they earned.
This class, with these students, has made me a better teacher even after 10 years of teaching. Lesson learned.
Staring at me from the deck is an angry 10-year-old with his arms crossed.
He's not getting in the lap pool.
The facility I teach at has two pools; a lap pool and a leisure pool. The leisure pool is shallow, with a zero-depth area and a 3-foot maximum at all other points. It's also significantly warmer than the lap pool. Preschool lessons and Levels 1 and 2 are taught in the leisure pool. Levels 3 and up are taught in the lap pool. This can cause some anxiety when a student levels up from 2 to 3. The lap pool is big, it's deep, and it's cold! Some students need to re-learn their skills in the "big pool", and gain confidence in the fact that swimming is swimming, whether you can touch the bottom or not. Most of the time, the transition can start in level 2, with an "adventure" to the big pool sometime during the session. Level 3 teachers understand that they may encounter hesitance or fear of the lap pool and can plan the first few lessons accordingly.
This is the situation I found myself in on the first day of lessons. My level 3 class consisted of three students, only one of which had ever been in the lap pool. The other two students, brothers, were not excited about getting into the water. In situations like this, it's good to take it slow but still push students to get over their initial apprehension. So I asked the students to climb in the water. And two of them did.
But not Zach.
He said no. There was no hesitation, no 'I'll try it but so slowly that we waste half the lesson', nothing. It was simply not going to happen. If he was a younger student, I may have chosen at that moment to pick him up and put him (slowly) in the water. Being 10 years old, I didn't feel like that would be helpful or appropriate. So what to do?
Eventually his mom stepped in with some word of encouragement (or a threat, I couldn't be sure) and he started to s-lo-w-l-y get into the pool. Great....progress. Now onto floats. Another emphatic no. At this point, I decided to play hardball. I stated my rule "everyone takes a turn", and moved him into a front float. I asked him to blow bubbles. He refused. I said "Ok, we can float until you blow bubbles". And I held him in a front float while I watched the other two students do their back floats. Then I asked him again to blow bubbles. "Fine" and he did. Victory! Only problem was, at that point the lesson was almost over, and all I had accomplished with the class was floats. This is not the way I would like to handle my lessons.
So after the lesson, I decided I needed a new game plan. I was not going to allow a 10 year old to power-trip me, but at the same time I realize that forcing someone to do something is not the most productive way to make progress.
So, what is this student's motivation? He wants to swim in the leisure pool. How can I use that to my advantage?
The next day, I wrote a list of tasks that I wanted to complete in this lesson, and stuck it to a kick board. When my students showed up, I made a deal with them. If we can complete all the tasks on this list, then we can spend the rest of the lesson in the other pool. If we all take our turn and try hard without stalling, we will have more time in the warm pool. If we can't finish all the things on the list, then we will not have time to swim in the warm pool.
Zach looked at the list, looked at me, and said "I'll do it". Huh? This from the kid who refused to do a float yesterday? But he did. He got in, he did the activities...and at the end of the lesson, he was smiling. And I kept my word....we spent the last five minutes in the leisure pool.
I'm now at the point with this class that I am actually working on skills. Zach is cheerful, excited to come to class, and improving every day. Whenever anyone in the class starts to hesitate in participation, all I have to do is pull out the "threat" of no time in the warm pool, and suddenly we have a renewed vigour for swimming!
This strategy works because it is a balance of teacher control and student control. As the instructor, I set the agenda and decide which pool we swim in. This is not up for debate by the students. But the students have control over how much time we spend in the leisure pool. Do the tasks when I ask, and we have more time in the warm pool. Stall or screw around, and we won't have any time left. This means I have to keep my word as well. I can't all of a sudden decide at the end of the lesson to add more tasks. I have to plan ahead and give students the reward they earned.
This class, with these students, has made me a better teacher even after 10 years of teaching. Lesson learned.
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