How my teaching is like my kicking
Haven’t done a football and teaching post for a while, possibly because seeing J League and the Japanese national team playing has sapped me of all enthusiasm for the sport. It’s been even longer since I’ve kicked a ball in anger, and maybe 10 years since my glory days as the defensive stalwalt of our unbeaten* Teachers v Students team at EF Waterloo.
Back in my day, though, I had a playing style (or lack of) very much like my teaching style:
I have no particular natural talents but almost completely manage to make up for that with determination and energy. I’m therefore always pleasantly surprised by just successfully completing a game. People who judge by my qualifications/ the fact that I don’t look unathletic though are sometimes surprised that I don’t try something a bit fancier.
There are some things I just cannot do however much I try- taking penalties and having easily legible writing being two. So I just concentrate on improving my marking/ selection of language games instead. I can tend to get a bit carried away on the tackling/ discipline, but luckily people can usually see that I don’t mean anything by it. Sometimes people will take it the wrong way, but I almost always manage to win them round by the end of the game/ course.
One major weakness is that I can put some much attention into one lesson/ tackle that I totally forget about tactics/ planning a longer term syllabus- which is why I still really need a good coach/ DoS to check up on me. However, as I look like I know what I am doing I’m usually left to it, and anyway the supply of good coaches/ DoSs is low…
Anyone else teach like they play? If no one tells me it isn’t so, next time I interview someone for a teaching job they will definetly be asked this question!
More TEFL and footie extended metaphors in Rumours of Big Name Transfers in the EFL League.
*Yes, it does occur to me too that the only reason we beat a team of mainly young Brazilians and Spaniards was because they were too scared to tackle us, but when you are a TEFL teacher in London you have to take benefits where you can find them…
November 18th, 2007 at 6:37 am
I can remember turning out once for the Inlingua squad in a hotly-contested match against IH, San Sebastian (Spain). I put on a fine display as a manic keeper, throwing myself around the goal area with a lack of regard for my own health that might have been called suicidal.
We would have won, and could have, as I managed to keep a clean sheet until ten minutes before the final whistle. But by then the effects of the previous evening’s misplaced pleasures were beginning to take their toll, and the most I could do was grin manically as the ball rolled through my legs not once but twice!
And that penalty in injury time - no way, guv! The guy fell over my extended leg just as he was about to tap it in, I swear…
November 18th, 2007 at 8:09 am
That sounds like some classes I’ve observed…Does the comparison work for you too?