By Preston Thue
Staff Writer
Many teachers at Mira Costa are athletic coaches on top of teaching their classes. Depending on the schedule a teacher has, there are benefits and consequences to this practice, as teachers can incorporate skills from coaching to their everyday lessons.
At Costa, students often complain about their teacher being absent due to sporting events, however, the quality of teaching is not degraded. Many teachers at Costa coach a sport and teach academics, such as math teacher Gary Smith and science teacher Roberto Calderon.
According to Smith, most of his time is spent teaching math since coaching soccer only takes up a small fraction of his school day. The fact that Smith is a soccer coach on the field helps students in the classroom learn about sports who haven’t ever gotten to participate in them. He even brings his sports experience into the classroom by having what he calls “game day.” This proves to be a magnificent idea, since sitting in a classroom can become tedious at times.
On “game day,” Smith has his students answer math questions, and if answered correctly, they get to choose a miniature version of a sport in the classroom. He says that he does this to get students to be active and have a different way of articulating material to students, one of the positive effects of teachers also being coaches.
Smith is also one of the lucky teachers who has fifth period as a planning period, which allows him to go to sporting events without missing class time. As soccer only lasts for a third of the year, it is further evident that he can focus on his math classes similar to other teachers who only coach a one season sport. Seeing as this works so well for Smith, Costa should possibly look for a way to implement this same schedule with all teachers who are coaches.
Some may think there are downsides to teachers also being coaches, but this is not the case at Costa. In fact, coaching brings a new perspective on education in the classroom as sports teach motivation and determination to improve oneself. If a teacher does his or her job right, they can bring these benefits to the classroom.
Another advantage is that this benefits the sports team. A great example is how the football coaches play film of the game and teach the players how to improve by analyzing the mistakes they made, and it is no coincidence that football coaches Chuck Currier and Don Morrow are also teachers. This portrays how classroom approaches can be used in a sports setting.
Failure is the only way to learn from mistakes, and sports coaches take advantage of this tactic. Similar to coaches, teachers should encourage failure. In other words, teachers should not always expect students to always be correct, but instead create challenges so that students can learn how to work on their mistakes.
Teachers should also convey the positives of teamwork as coaches do. If coaches are teachers, students will have the potential to learn the importance of teamwork, as exemplified in the classroom. With the pooling of knowledge to accomplish a goal, students can achieve greatness beyond their capability of working alone.
Whether it’s on the field, pool, or track, coaches take a personal approach with their players, which heavily impacts their growth as an athlete. This can also be accomplished in the classroom as teachers tend to be more personal with students, overall, creating a much more beneficial learning atmosphere.
As long as coaches are able to eliminate the possible consequences that can come with being a teacher and a coach, such as missing class, they have the potential to be better at teaching in comparison with teachers who aren’t coaches. in other words, if teachers are able to adopt the philosophies and methods that define quality coaching, they will be able to improve the strength of their impact as instructors in the classroom.
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