The importance of team building for educators

Many organizations value team building highly, making sure to arrange at least one session every year so that they can create collaborative, high-performing teams. Educational institutions should also consider organizing such activities because it is beneficial to the professional development of teachers. 

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Several factors affect student learning and performance, and the most impactful ones include teacher morale, faculty collaboration, and school culture or climate. 

Teaching continues to be one of the most challenging and stressful profession because educators need to deal with a collection of students of varying personalities and backgrounds. Team building activities can help motivate or boost the morale of teachers. Additionally, well-designed programs can also instill the necessary skills in teachers and make them better at their work. 

Team building can also address the tendency of teachers to isolate themselves whenever they prepare lessons or feel overwhelmed by the challenges of the profession. But working alone has rarely shown to be effective for educators. They are better off connecting with other teachers and sharing frustrations, ideas, and strategies with one another. 

Through team building, any barriers that inhibit communication and collaboration among educators can be reduced, if not eliminated. A community can be built, one that promotes a sense of belongingness, trust, and cooperation. 

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James Padlock is an accomplished educator who is knowledgeable in team building, exceptional education law and strategies, leadership training, and educational program evaluation. Follow this Twitter page for more discussions about the educational strategies.

Seeing The Beauty Of Positive Coaching

While positive coaching can mean many different things for coaches, its general goal is inculcating excellence. Positive coaching offers coaches and leaders a scientifically and philosophically sound way to help athletes achieve more, perform better, be happier and healthier, and to aspire for more.

Coaches are influential in the lives of young athletes. When adults are asked to share their fondest memory of being in school, they would most likely pause and think, and can sometimes go blank. But when asked about their times in sports teams, they have a concrete memory of their winning shot or successful clutch move. The meaning parents and coaches incorporate into a child-athlete’s achievement stays with them through their adult years.

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Nowadays, coaches and parents pressure star players with a barrage of important shots. This transforms the experience of sports into a chore. Sports start to feel less fun for kids when the main goal is to win. The pressure mounts when sports performance determines the obtention of scholarships from good schools.

Positive coaching aims to change the way the sporting world has shaped kids in the previous years. Sports has become too selective and competitive instead of enjoyable and educational. Positive coaching strives for excellence, helping athletes understand that it does matter to win. However, it should respect and protect the self-worth of every athlete; it is demanding, yet never demeaning. It must shape an athlete’s spirit, rather than break it.

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James Padlock is a special education teacher and coach at Northside High School in Roanoke, Virginia. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physical Education from COE College. For quick updates from James Padlock, follow this Twitter.

Teacher factor: Ways teachers affect student achievement

In its most basic form, student achievement is affected by three key elements: the student, the school, and the home. While curricula, reduced class size, school, family, and community are all contributors to a student’s success, the quality of the teacher is the most notable influencing factor. 

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Research suggests that teacher quality makes up for 30 percent of the difference in student performance. Another study supports this argument as it has revealed that the most effective 10 percent of teachers can achieve in half a year what teachers from the bottom 10 percent can accomplish in a whole year. Effective teachers are educators who can provide students with stimulating environments, a platform that is appropriate for the needs of the students, structure, and stability, support for weaker students, consistency and direction, encouragement and emotional support, learning tools and resources, and feedback and goal-setting. 

In addition to all these, educators give advice for parents, guidance for the future, knowledge and skills, diagnosis of weakness, opportunities for unusual experiences, hands-on learning, conditions for curiosity, guided questioning, a model of lifelong learning, opportunities for teamwork and support, desire for learning, high expectations, and programs that fulfill learning in a significant and conscious way. 

The factors that limit a teacher’s impact are the student and home factors. Parents can help their children achieve more by supporting their teachers, having trust in the teacher and school processes and their child’s ability to learn. They should also convey to their child how much they value learning, education, and its benefits. It would be best if they can be models of lifelong learning to their children. 

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In his career as an educator, James Padlock has gained a wide range of skills in classroom teaching. He is proficient in developing and presenting differentiated lessons within multiple grade levels and subject areas. For more updates like this, visit this blog.

How to encourage kids to get into sports

The importance of leading a child into sports cannot be emphasized enough. The benefits, which are a combination of physical, mental, and emotional, will be with them throughout their lives.

Several studies have shown that the benefits of sports on children include higher self-esteem, vitality, and alertness. They also have a higher stress tolerance and are more focused when it comes to hard work. Incredibly, children who get into sports at a young age have a lot less behavioral issues later in life.

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 Because of all these benefits, it’s very important for parents to encourage their children to get into sports. There are a few things to take into consideration though, before simply pushing children into an endeavor.

First and foremost, parents need to learn what their kids want. They can do this by taking their children to watch games live, or on television. While watching, parents should observe their children if the younger ones are taking a liking or are bored by it.

A child’s age is also an important factor. Some sports may not be suitable for a child to learn at an early age. Kids below six may enjoy sports that aren’t too complicated, where they probably just get to run a lot.

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Another important consideration is the child’s personality. Some kids are better at team sports, while others excel individually. James Padlock is a coach who has extensive experience mentoring kids of all ages. He is also an accomplished educator. Learn more about him and his work by visiting this Facebook page.

The marriage of effective communication and strong leadership

The best leaders know that they need to do everything to help their teams hit their targets and goals. They motivate team members through any means necessary. It is for this reason that effective communication plays a central role in any form of leadership, especially strong leadership.

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To keep the team going, leaders have to motivate their team members. They can’t be if their relationship with their leaders is strained. The bond between teams and their leaders should be positive and fresh, and should foster mutual respect and understanding. Communication facilitates all this. So many teams have failed because relationships have gone sour and entire teams have quit simply because the lines of communication were limited and flawed.

Communication also allows for the exchange of ideas, which are designed to introduce improvements to the team’s inner workings, and which the leader might not have conceived yet. If members are permitted and encouraged to voice their thoughts, the team can benefit from a fertile flux of ideas. And as leaders, they should be all about the team and how they can forge ahead to accomplish the tasks at hand.

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Effective communication ensures everyone has a voice, and strong leadership means this voice is filtered the right way and given audience at the right time and heard and respected by everyone. And it’s up to leaders and managers to free up internal communication within an organization from obstructions. When employees feel that they’re being heard and that they have a voice, they’re more motivated to do good for a company and for its leaders.

James Padlock is an accomplished educator. His skills include developing and managing student programs, activities, and special events. He is knowledgeable in team building, education law and strategies, leadership training, and educational program evaluation. For more on his professional life, check out this site.