We have some work to do

Lessons learned from a big win, a big loss, and a game lost from a last minute missed extra point kick:

This past week we suffered a one point loss to our conference rival Northwestern State. It was a tough game and just shows you how important each play is in every game. It is key and vital to be able to treat each play in each game like it has a life of its own. In the grand scheme of things it truly does. You can blame one play for the game but we must take a look back in all phases of the game in areas that we could’ve done better and could have improved on. Our football team is vastly improved from a year ago and the trajectory of the team looking upward. We must put it all together to start being where we want to be. We are not there yet.

Ownership:

I’m going to discuss this from two different angles, as the concept of “ownership” has been on my mind this week. As you know, I have the privilege of coaching football here at Lamar University. We have had some ups and downs. We started the season with a huge win against a smaller school, followed by a huge defeat by larger Texas Tech. Last night, we had a rough start, fighting back hard, but still coming up short 48-49. Our team is comprised of upperclassmen who are just starting their second year with our new staff, sophomores who have only known our staff, freshman, who are new to everything, and transfer students, who came from a different program altogether.

I took a few minutes to look over my assignments from our last course on Power of the Growth Mindset and my Learning Manifesto. Before this season began, I considered the challenge ahead, getting buy in from so many different athletes from so many different backgrounds. I thought about the “yet” - we are not a cohesive team, “yet.” I considered the opportunity to not only embrace the growth mindset, but to model it for the young college athletes that have been entrusted to me. As we enter preparation for game 4, we have already experienced the highs and lows. As we took a huge loss to Texas Tech last week, and fell short against our first conference opponent last night, I have to not only kick my Growth Mindset into gear, but also work hard to help my athletes look at this as a challenge. I’m not going to lie, I am second guessing quite a bit myself this morning, but I have to shove that fixed mindset out and show up this morning with my Growth Mindset ready to prepare my athletes for our next opponent. As the coach/teacher, I have to help them take a hard fought loss, and turn it into an opportunity to learn from the mistakes and improve each week.

As I contemplate “ownership of a portfolio” - I know that if I own it, I will be more likely to value it, nurture it, and watch it grow into something great. Which leads me to the comparison of my Lamar football players. If they own their part on the team, they to will work to value it, nurture it, and watch it grow into something great. When we “own” something that we worked hard to create, we value it more. My challenge is getting that buy-in to ownership.

As far as the actual portfolio “ownership,” I like The Domain concept. The school owns the portfolio until the student graduates. At that point, the work transfers to them and is not lost. In this day and age, I also worry about the school’s liability with K-12 students. If the student is creating items that their parent/guardian feels like making public, there is nothing keeping that adult from creating their own platform for their child, outside the school site - just use a clip drive to take the work home, or email it to that parent/guardian.

With football season being in high gear, I am unable to take part in the live class discussion, but listen to it after the fact. I appreciate the “shout out” last Tuesday, Dr. Reed!

Watters, Audrey. (2015). The web we need to give students - BRIGHT Magazine. Retrieved from https://brightthemag.com/the-web-we-need-to-give-students-311d97713