Group items tagged

High fives, thumbs up, and verbal encouragement were as much a part of his time as anything else.

Adjust to different personalities.

Nate would take one person to the other end of the pool while everyone else was able to practice in the shallow end.

Nate smiled a lot.

Smiling goes a long way and we should do this more when teaching writing.

When kids did something they weren’t suppose to, they paid the consequence. He made his explanations clear and the consequence for crossing a boundary evident up front.

Give challenges.

Since Nate is a swimmer himself, he is able to constantly push each person to become stronger.

Give a small amount of whole group instruction and a lot of time for practice. His instruction with the whole group was a matter of minutes. Then he watched them all attempt the teaching point. Then he would call them together and refine his instruction. He never “instructed” for more than a few minutes at a time. He knows learning happens by doing.

Teach the big things first.

He made his teaching important by focusing on the things that would make the biggest difference.

Ignore the mess. Learning something new can be messy. Nate ignored the mess. Instead he focused on encouragement and teaching one thing. As a writing teacher I need to ignore the mess a little more.

End with fun. 

Give a reminder at the very end. As they were drying off, he would say to each person, “Now what are you going to think about until you come back?” He would give one reminder. The really big thing he expected of each person.

Celebrate BIG from time to time. 

At the end of all the lessons, we had a pool party.

In a world where people avoid the things that make them hurt, we have an opportunity to teach students the healing power of writing. This is part of making writing workshop genuine and responsive to the needs of our students. This isn’t a lesson we will be able to “schedule ahead” in our lesson plan books; however, it is one we can be prepared to give when tragedy strikes.