Book Review "A Coach's Life"

I read a book called A Coach's Life: My Forty Years in College Basketball. I found this book to be very beneficial in my journey of being a coach so far. This book gave you an inside look at Dean Smith’s life on and off the court. He is considered to be one of the greatest basketball coaches of all time. He won 13 conference championships, two national championships, an Olympic gold medal, and he had 24 players go in the first round of the NBA draft. The thing I liked about him was that he was not only a coach but he was someone who had a major impact on the lives of young men. He didn’t just spend time with the best players he gave his total attention to all the players. The most impressive statistic is that 98% of his players earned college degrees, and a high percentage of them went on to graduate and professional schools. I really enjoyed this book because Coach Smith shared his basketball philosophy and mindset about the game today. He told about some of the controversial things that happened such as the desegregating of his North Carolina basketball team in the 1960s. One of the most important things that I liked was that he was a strong leader who showed his players how to win the right way on and off the court. In conclusion, I really benefited from the book because I plan on taking some of his ideas using them with my coaching style. I plan on developing my philosophy similar to him because I want to make a difference in the lives of young people on and off the court.

Book review "Beyond Basketball"

I read a book called “Beyond Basketball” by Jamie K. Spatola. This book talks about some of the life stories of Mike Krzyzewski who is the men’s basketball coach of the Duke Blue Devils. Coach “K” as they call him has won 3 NCAA championships and he has also won twelve national Coach of the year awards. He coached the USA men’s basketball team at the Summer Olympics in 2008 in which they won gold.
This book tells 40 short, hard-hitting essays that dealt with his life that are centered on an important keyword and illustrated with information from his personal experiences. There was also some key words and statements in this book that will stick with me for a lifetime. Coach K stated that in all forms of leadership, whether you are a coach, a CEO, or a parent, there are four words that, when said, can bring out the best in your team, your employees, and your family. Those four words are “I BELIEVE IN YOU.” He said that those four words can mean the difference between a fear of failure and the courage to try. Another statement that he had in the book was “failure can never be your destination.” In which he meant that you can outlive your darkest days and I think that is a very powerful statement. Students, players, or friends need to know that in adverse circumstances you must remind yourself that this day is not your last. A person can get through the situation but can they use this experience to get better because improvement comes as the result of adversity. In conclusion, I really enjoyed this book because rather than giving a word and telling his players a word and the definition. Coach K can tell them a story that directly relates to the word which sticks with them for a lifetime.

Teaching changes

This year has really been interesting for me teaching and coaching so far. I started out teaching 3 American Histories, 1 World History, and a 7 th grade Social Studies class. I had a 7th grade athletic period and that was it. The Jr. and Sr. high athletic periods were 7th and 8 th period and those were the same time as my American History classes. So I had to practice with the teams after school in order to make my presence known. About 2 weeks in to the school year I had a conference period taken and they added a Biology Remediation class to my schedule. I just found out about a week ago that I would no longer be in 7 th grade athletics first period nor would I teach Biology Remediation anymore. They told me that they would be adding 2 more World History Classes to my schedule. Now I have 3 World History classes, 3 American History classes, a 7th grade Social Studies class, and a conference period. I really didn't like it at first but I have come to realize that you have to be able to deal with change. The reason I got into teaching was because I wanted to be a coach and through this whole process so far it makes me feel like I'm just a teacher. I have talked to other people and they have told me that it is just my first year it will get better. They said that your first year is always your worst. Overall I'm still pleased because even though I'm not in the athletic periods I still get to coach the game I love. This also allows me to polish up on my teaching skills since I have a lot of time to practice.

Teaching Strategies

I really have enjoyed the assignments of the teaching strategies that we had to do. I think that these assignments make you go more in to detail with how you plan on presenting a lesson to your students. I like that you get to model it for them and you get to have guided practice when presenting material to them. I also like that students get individual practice to see how well they grasped the strategy. Finally, as a teacher I get to evualate the process as a whole too see how the well the students understood the strategy. The end process allows you to assess the students and yourself to see if you presented the material to the students in the proper way.

Basketball season

The basketball season has begin and I'm an assistant in Jr. and Sr. high boys basketball. We started out rocky and lost our first 2 games but our team is beginning to get it together and we have now won 3 in a row. Basketball has always been a love of mine because I played in high school and in college. I also help with the Jr. and Sr. girls and I'm looking forward to a tournament in Dumas later on this month. My mother coaches the Sr. girls in Dumas and I might get to sit on the bench and go against her. I think it will be kind of ackward at first but once the game gets going it will turn into just another game.

Audit

My school had an audit from the Arkansas Department of Education during the last week of August. That was kind of a stressful week because there was people in suits walking around and they could come in and monitor your class at anytime. They interviewed me for an hour and I had 5 different people come in 5 different classes. The auditors usually stayed about 20 to 30 minutes. At first I was a little nervous but after about the second visit it was just like they weren't there. I think in the end it was very beneficial because it allowed me to teach in front of different people.

Football season

I really enjoyed my first season as an assistant with the Drew Central football team. We had a lot of ups and downs and some memories that will last a lifetime. The first memory was when we won our first game against Cedar Ridge in which we traveled nearly 3 hours for the game. Another memory was our second victory of the season when we beat Parker's Chapel in a thriller at their place. The season is over now and it was kind of sad when it ended because it was like splitting up a family because we had been together since the summer. I will never forget my first season because I learned a lot about football and dealing with young people.