The Teacher/Coach Dynamic

As the spring season closes, it allows me to reflect on the importance of the student/teacher dynamic at St. Paul's. I have discussed this with my friends that teach a public school, and their immediate response is along the lines of "But you get out of school so late!". It's true, during the fall I am not home until 6 and during the spring, we are home after 7. However, I think it is a minor cost for the value that it provides at school in the classroom. Time is really the only negative aspect of a teacher/coach dynamic in school. Being a coach allows me to establish a rapport with students that I normally would never meet or have anything in common with. I have had students that I have coached but never taught come to me for extra help in their Science, or even other classes, simply because they respect me as a coach.

This same dynamic also helps when a student in my class is not doing well academically or behaviorally and I have trouble motivating them. I am easily able to contact their coach (or theatre teacher, if they are more arts inclined) to reach out and help that student. There have been a number of times where a student avoids meeting with me, but I can reach out to a coach who can chat with them on the field or back stage, in a much more informal setting. The teacher/coach dynamic also relieves some of the pressures other schools have with grades and athletics. Because our coaches are mostly teachers, there is never any question as to whether academics or sports comes first. If a student is missing significant amounts of work, coaches have no problem placing them in Afternoon Study Hall to miss half or all of practice after school. This, above all else, is a fantastic motivator for students to focus on school before their athletics.

I have rarely heard a coworker at our school complain about the time commitment for coaching. When teachers from other schools ask about the extra work that is put in, it is very easily justified!