Do you remember when your mum used to ask you at dinner time - "So dear, what did you learn at school today?"
Well....I had my yr 6 students in their 'Net Games' unit rotating through 3 activities - badminton, volleyball and tennis. I had just minutes before (in the lesson brief) told them that if they want to create their own versions of each of the sports then they may (eg. throw and catch volleyball). I have been pushing the point repeatedly to all my classes that it is ok to change the rules and playing conditions to suit their abilities and preferences in regard to competitiveness level (eg. scoring points vs friendly rallies).
If it is 'fun and fair' - that beats 'sticking to the real rules'.
As I was walking toward the tennis group I noticed 4 pairs of students all standing on one tennis crt (we have three courts) and seemingly getting in each other's way.
And then I did it....I stuck my nose in!
"Hey kids - spread out! And move closer to your partner, and use the other court lines available".
They went quiet, and began to move, until one student spoke up - "But Mr. B we've invented a new game".
And I realised that I had fallen back into an old habit - fencing in my students to conform to the 'norm' of what tennis should be. If the kids weren't watching I would have punched myself in the face!
"Oh...Ok...What is it"?
They explained that they were playing 4 v 4 - defending their baseline with 4 balls active at any one time. The number of bounces didn't matter, they just had to defend their side of the court and hit the tennis balls back to try and get them past the other team. They were using tennis strokes, communicating to team mates, spreading out, defending space and aiming for space in their opponents court - everything that happens in real tennis!
Brilliant! Brilliant! Brilliant!
This is exactly what I want from these kids - to be creative with rules, inclusive with class mates and to find ways of making a game suit them, rather than persisting with a set of rules and conditions that doesn't suit them.
So I encouraged them to continue, and in the lesson debrief I pointed out their triumph to the rest of the class. I also highlighted the mistake I made as the teacher.
I have no problems with pointing out my faults and vulnerabilities to my students. They must see that it is ok to make mistakes. This is how we learn - and I certainly learnt a valuable lesson that day.
