Alliance for Catholic Education
“It’s a whole body thing. Your shot should be one fluid motion.”
“Follow through. Hold your hand up after you release the ball.”
“Again.”
While preparing for a beloved tradition of ACE Summer, the ACEstore basketball tournament, these were some of the comments I heard from my instructor: my housemate, Jordan. He gave me a lesson typical of any good teacher. There was a clear lesson objective (SWBAT apply proper form to shooting a basketball); he gave explicit direct instruction, explaining step-by-step exactly what I had to do; he modeled the technique; and he gave feedback as I practiced.
Even so, I couldn’t seem to get everything right. I didn’t bend my knees enough, I shot the ball too far forward, or I just straight up missed the hoop. I began to feel really frustrated; no matter how many times I tried, I still struggled. Jordan made it look so easy. And at that moment, I had a realization. This is how my students must feel!
The reality of teaching is that students will struggle in your class. Just as I lack experience in basketball, many of my students lack the background knowledge necessary to naturally succeed in English class. As much as I’d like to believe that practice can help me master any skill, the truth is that no matter how hard I practice, I can’t make up for fifteen missing years of experience in two weeks (apologies to my community members). You may not get all your students to the level that you hope for them to reach, but what’s important is that you simply help them do better than they could before they entered your classroom.
As you’ll learn in your ACE classes, it is important to model behavior that you want your students to exhibit. So I encourage you to embrace struggle. Show your students that only by working through challenges can you overcome them. Through practice for ACEstore, will I become a basketball pro? No. (That will probably not happen ever.) But will I be better than before? Absolutely! The same goes for your students. They may never write the perfect essay or flawlessly factor an equation, but showing them that struggling makes them better will push them to improve their skills little-by-little.
So, y’all, watch me on the court during the tournament. No matter how much (or how little) I contribute to the NOLA community’s success on the court, I’ll rejoice in knowing I embraced the struggle to support my housemates and ended up a better player than before.