Teachers as Students. Just Keep Swimming

This post was conceived couple of months ago and was brought back to live recently by this series of posts on iTDi website. In the articles teachers were reflecting on their teaching practice through their experience as learners. I would like to present my little story.

I took up swimming last October being desperately in need of physical exercise. I decided on the lessons with a teacher right away since from the first visit to the pool it was clear I' m merely a human who was born to walk. I noticed the similarities between learning a language and learning swimming immediately. That gave me some valuable insights in my own teaching and some thing to take away to my English lessons.

1. Flippers, swimming boards and more than you can imagine
While you are in the water from the first lesson, the teacher gives you equipment to help you stay afloat or work on a particular movement or style. There are tons of things you can put on while swimming, some of them let you move faster (or slower), train body position, work out sertain muscles or breath properly. Althought some of them are really simple, they make a huge difference on the lesson.

Takeaway: scaffolding! Lots of scaffolding! Experiment with scaffolding!

2. Can you swim faster, please?

I have, so to say, "group swimming lessons" where 3 to 8 people occupy 2 lanes and our teacher gives us tasks and comments separately, so basically everybody works on their own but also in the same physical space. It can cause certain tension, when, for instance, a slower swimmer tries to crawl his way to the end of his lane stopping every five metres to catch a breath while a faster swimmer angrily splashing around make an almost impossible move of getting around (been both of those people actually).

Takeaway: mixed ability classes happen. And there are two ways around it: hope that people will be kind and helpful to each other or provide already mentioned scaffolding to give support to weaker student thus bringing them closer to the stronger ones.

3. A little bit of fun.
My swimming teacher gives me all kinds of tasks including swimming with the glass on my forehead, clapping my hands while swimming or diving to get small objects from the bottom of the pool. While I have so much fun  doing these exercises (and also mouth full of water), I understand that my teacher gives it to me for a reason: to practice head's position or strengthen my press muscles. They break the routine and bring some playfulness and lightness to the learning process.

Takeaway: games are good! But don't forget to remind your students why they are helpful.

4. Open waters

This summer I had a chance to test my skills in the open water. Quite literally. We went to the seaside, I put on my fancy swimming suit and goggles, went for a dip and... got out disappointed. The salt got into my mouth and it was hard to breath, the waves threw me around and I was also a bit scared that I was going to drawn.

Takeaway: I don't really know what to make of it still. The bottom line is, I guess, that we can never predict how we will feel about our learning in the future. I imagined swimming in the sea to be the high point of my swimming lessons. Turned out I don't enjoy it so much. Maybe I was born for the pool, for diving or even synchronised swimming! The lesson here is to bring yourself back on track, find a new goal and continue moving in that direction.

5. Camera! Action!

Seeing myself on camera helped my understood which movements I need to work on more and where I can improve. It was as simple as that.

Takeaway: record my students more. Also keep some of their writings to track progress in that area.

6. Despite my ups and downs throughout the year - missed classes because of illness or laziness, minor swimming-related injury, my poor spirit in the beginning of the classes since I thought I would never be able to breath properly - I look back now and see a tremendous progress. I started as a person who was afraid to put her face underwater and am currently moving in a direction of a confident and fairly sturdy swimmer. And it makes me sooo happy that I can't even imagine suddenly stopping swimming.

Takeaway: remind your students about their progress. Point to where they started and what they have achieved. Many of my students are too negative about their learning, they see only the mistakes they make and they stuff they haven't learnt yet. And I feel it's my duty as a teacher to give them this perspective. After all, we like doing what we're good at.