fit, happy
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05.13.10 – Face, Day 4
0Ah, well, crap. I decided to head to Omaha a little earlier than I planned, so I spent all of 5 minutes drawing…I tried! I couldn’t focus at all, and I decided I was probably doing more harm than good. I’ll make it up on Sunday, I promise.
The Art of Teaching
0One of the hardest things to balance in a martial arts class is discipline vs. fun. Our school is fun, and I work hard to keep it that way, but I also try hard to keep it disciplined, and it’s difficult to balance the two. Without discipline, the kids might as well be running circles in the park – yes, they’re having fun, but parent don’t pay us to let their kids run around in circles. With too much discipline, the fun all gets stripped out. I don’t want a class full of kids who are afraid to laugh. And Taekwondo should be fun – it is fun. I just have to find a line where we’re having fun, in a disciplined environment.
Most nights, I think I succeed – but I hope the parents cut me some slack on the other nights. Some nights there are kids acting up, and I have to crack down on the discipline end of things. Some nights, I have to spend less time with the quiet kids and more time controlling the hyper kids. Some nights, I get really frustrated and overwhelmed, and all I can do is my best. Being a black belt doesn’t mean you know how to teach – teaching is definitely a skill, and definitely takes a remarkable amount of patience. I love it, but I’m no pro yet.
And everything I do, I do under the full view of the parents. I sometimes envy school teachers for their isolated classrooms – not because the parents are disruptive, or because I would teach any differently away from them, but because it does stress me out when I have to discipline a kid in front of parents. And I’m not perfect – I make mistakes, and they get to see every one. I always hope that they’ll forgive me for the times when I’m a little scatterbrained, or frustrated with someone else’s kid. But I sometimes forget that they’re parents, and they already know what I’m quickly learning – you do the best you can, and hope that somehow the kids pick up some tiny part of what you’re trying to teach them.
Please run around this bag until you are tired.
0Some nights, you crow about your fellow instructors and the kids’ parents for being your constant supporters, the next all your instructors cancel last-minute because of “work” or “swine flu” and half the kids don’t show up…typical. Which is to say, it was a slooowwww night at taekwondo. The combination of kids being sick, and the fact that I think most of the parents decided we weren’t having class because it’s testing week (note: We did. We always do. Just so you know.), meant three white belts for intro class, and only TWO kids for regular class. It all sort of worked out though, since as I mentioned all my help had to cancel. If we’d had a full class I would have been in trouble…
Teaching two kids is hard though, it’s hard to build up much energy in class. Or in this case to stop the 45-minute long case of the giggles (and they’re boys!). Actually, one of the first things I learned working with kids is that anyone under the age of 13 is completely prone to the giggles. I sort of let it go, but it’s mighty hard to stand up and do taekwondo while laughing like that. But better that than boredom, I figure, so I just tried to keep the goofiness to a manageable level while kicking up the conditioning drills a lot. Pushups? Yes! See Who Can Kick a Bag the Most? Please! Running slaloms around bags because we can? Of course!
And the next time you’re teaching a taekwondo class (because I’m sure this is a problem you have often), and you’re looking at the clock, wondering what on earth you’re going to have these kids do for the next 20 minutes, I’ll share a little secret with you…the slow motion race. Slow motion, eyes closed, last one done wins…I consider it one of my most brilliant inventions. They love it, everybody can do it (so even the ones who hate normal races are happy), and they actually put a lot of effort into it. Plus, you get to sit and watch the kids do matrix-slow moves with their faces scrunched into incredible shapes of concentration – either because of the taekwondo or from trying to physically force themselves not to peek, I’m not sure. Either way it’s pretty entertaining. Actually that will only kill about 5 minutes, though, so you’re own your own for the other 15…sorry. That’s the joy of teaching :)
Talk with your audience, not to them
0I found myself today at a presentation by Kaiser Kuo. It sounded intriguing, the lunch was free (thanks to my employer), so I figured what’s to lose? I won’t attempt to summarize his presentation – too many stats and I wouldn’t do it justice, I’ll just say if you ever get a chance to hear him speak, do it.
But here’s the thing - The presentation ran late, and I asked one question and had to keep the 600 others that I had to myself because we were out of time. Just the stuff in his presentation was fascinating (the internet landscape in China), and on top of that the guy’s in a rock band, works at a hugely successful online video site, is writing a book…I almost wished he would have skipped the stats and just talked about what he’s done, although I probably needed the background to really be able to understand what he’s doing.
So I left with many questions, which will sadly not get answered, and I would have loved to start a discussion, get a back-and-forth going with the audience. It was interesting stuff, but it seemed like it wasn’t resonating with the heavily ad-oriented crowd like it could have. I think he set a great foundation, and there could have been a great discussion if there would have been time to follow up and start a dialogue. Q&A sessions are highly underrated, as are panels. In a lot of cases, interaction is better than one-way speeches, and the earlier q&a starts, the more engaged the crowd will be. The more I hear speakers, the more I think the speech should be the introduction and discussion the main event.