My brother was an All-State Wrestler 20 years ago. Because I was living in Spartanburg at the
time, I only attended a few of his matches. I remember being impressed with my
brother’s efforts and wins, but recall very little else. In November, Rosebro2
decided that he was going to take up a new sport. Inspired by a former JBE
student and SHS football standout, he learned that wrestling would increase his
strength and endurance for football. His
first match was last week on one of our work late days so I missed his first
match. He detailed it to me, but it didn’t prepare me for Saturday’s tournament.
On Saturday, he had his first wrestling tournament. My
husband, through his work as a trainer, has attended MANY wrestling tournaments
and told me to come prepared with a seat cushion, a fully charged phone, a book
to ready, and work to do. So I headed to Broome High School Saturday with a bag
full of books, and paper work- forgetting the seat cushion (big mistake). The first thing I learned was that there was
no need to bring anything with me. How anyone could read or work in that
environment was beyond me. Three wrestling matches were going on at one time on
three different mats. The entire time those three matches were going on, the
next wrestlers to meet each other were being called on the PA system to be in a
“holding” area. The other wrestlers surrounded the mats encouraging their
teammates. Coaches, only 2 per team, ran around with backpacks on and
clipboards, trying to assist each of their players. Parents would be watching
their phones (there were many great football games on Saturday) and suddenly would come out of their seats as their child's wrestling match would begin. While
sitting in a gym for 6 hours was very difficult for me (partly due to my
attention issues, but partly due to me forgetting a seat cushion), I found this
whole process fascinating….and just on a side note-so VERY stressful as a mom. During
football, there are 22 players on the field. Finding Rosebro2 is somewhat hard
for me. I leave it to my hubby and Rosebro1 to let me know if Rosebro2 is doing
his job and doing it well. That isn’t the case in wrestling. In wrestling,
there is Rosebro2 and one other wrestler on a mat doing what I normally would
be yelling at the Rosebros to stop doing in the middle of the living room.
As I was watching this tournament unfold Saturday, I was
fascinated with so many aspects. It was amazing to see the culture of the
wrestling teams. The different teams (I think maybe there were 8 different
schools represented) stayed huddled together all day while occasionally
creeping into the stands for encouragement from their families. They would
cheer on their teammates either from the side of the mat or while in the stands.
In later rounds, teammates even faced each other during a match and I watched
as the other wrestlers encouraged each wrestler and congratulated the winner
and consoled the defeated. Rosebro2’s team has two coaches and they could not attend
each match. I was amazed when the coach was not attending to a match, the other
players were right there acting as pseudo coaches. Additionally, I watched the
coaches carefully at each match they were coaching and what was amazing was the
way they guided the wrestlers- most who have not wrestled before- through each
match. They yelled (only because that is the ONLY way to communicate at these
events) suggestions and encouraged the wrestlers throughout the match. Then
after every match, they pulled the wrestler and told them what they did right
and what they did wrong. Rosebro2 did very well for his first tournament. He
went 3-1 for the tournament, pinning two guys, winning one on points, and being
pinned once (I later learned this happened because of a single wrong move).
The entire time I watched this, I thought about our
classrooms. Because our classrooms are full of students with a variety of
levels, we small group almost everything we do in ELA and Math. We have to-we’ve
learned that the one size fits all mode of teaching doesn’t work at moving all
students. We must know which students need us the most. We must teach our
students how to use their strengths-but we should know what they are first. We also
must ensure our students know what to do when we are not around. To
successfully run a classroom with small group instruction, students must be
taught what to do when the teacher isn’t around and this doesn’t mean just
behave well. This means giving their best and working hard no matter the tasks.
This takes time. This takes A LOT of work on the part of the teacher. You
cannot teach the students each day what to do. The teacher must create the relationship
with the students so that they know what is happening is so very valuable to
the teacher and them. The materials must be ready, the lessons must be
preplanned, and the work to be completed by the students without the guidance
of the teacher must be challenging, attainable, worthy. Additionally, the
classroom must have a culture like that of the wrestling team-where they all
encourage each other. The teacher must also watch the students carefully
through their work and give them tips along the way, but also know what they
are doing right and what they are doing wrong so you can encourage and correct
for the next time.
None of this is easy. It sounds so simple. Being prepared
for small group instruction often means we are at school well past our required
3:15. Understanding student strengths and weaknesses means we must study pedagogical
approaches to reading and math instruction. We must spend so much time during
our classroom instruction listening, watching students, and instructing that we
are forced to spend time afterwards finding the correct levels of reading,
looking for methods of helping students reach high levels of math conceptual
understanding. We spend time building culture. We spend time collaborating with
others-sharing in deep detail not just what we are doing buy why AND listening
and learning to what others are doing and adjusting our instruction because of
it all. We can do NONE of this if we do not know our students. If we do not
know what they know, what they don’t know, what they can do, what they can’t
do, we can never move them forward.
Also, and maybe most importantly, we cannot help students if
we do not understand the process. As I watched the coaches and players give
advice during matches, I realized that I had no idea what to “yell” in support.
In football, I can yell, “block”, “run”, “throw the flag”, etc. but Saturday I
had not a clue what Rosebro2 (or any other wrestler needed to do), but the
coaches and players knew. I don’t yet understand the sport. I say yet, because I
will. I sat with my hubby and another Dad who wrestled in college. They began
teaching me what everything meant and what the wrestlers needed to do to win. I
watched the coaches (the masters in the craft), as they gave suggestions and
demonstrated, I watched the brackets carefully and started paying careful
attention to those wrestlers who kept moving on in the winner’s bracket. I am
sure I will start researching it soon as well (I just know myself too well). We
cannot expect to teach students to learn to read, learn to comprehend, write
meaningfully, compute math, or solve word problems if we do not understand the
process. If you are not in constant study about the reading process or the math
process, trying to understand how this process is acquired, then you can never
expect your students to learn because you show up each day.
I’m off to the Walmart….if I am going to survive this
wrestling season, I must invest in a good seat cushion……
