My Journey
By: Brian Caldwell
My journey began three years ago when I realized what I was lacking. In 2007 I graduated from GVSU with a Bachelor’s Degree in physical education with an emphasis on coaching. At this time I thought I knew it all; I wanted to coach college basketball and had no interest in teaching at the high school level so I did not go through the school of ED or get my teaching certificate. This belief of not needing the certificate was further helped when I earned a position on a coaching staff at small university near my home. While this was a part time position I was still coaching and doing what I love without having to teach. Yet, after a couple of years I found myself wanting more from a coaching standpoint, so I began searching for jobs around the country. This is where I was hit with a dose of reality; I needed a Master’s Degree so that I would be able to teach.
This began my journey to find a program that I would be able to take and meet the demands of my lifestyle. After four or five months of searching my wife came across the MAED at MSU. As we began to look closer it became clear that this would be the best program for me. It offered me the ability to take classes online and work at my own pace as well as offering me the chance to focus on coaching and further my education in that field. However, the biggest aspect I was excited about was the focus on education and teaching. Since I had less background than most people when it came to teaching it was a great opportunity to learn how to teach.
After my acceptance I began the program in the spring of 2011 taking two classes. The first semester went along fine with no big problems or issues and I was excited to be learning again. Then came the summer; I intended on taking two classes every semester for five semesters and being done within a year and a half but we decided to buy a house in April. We knew it was a fixer upper but we really had no idea until we started to work on it. I ended up dropping my classes from the summer and not taking any in the fall because there was just too much work between my two jobs and the house. When I began again in the spring of 2012 I received and email that there was a problem with my original two classes and I had not received credit for taking them, not a good start to the year. Luckily my advisor and professors were willing to help me out and let me enroll in the classes for that spring and award me the grades I had earned the previous year. From there on it has been smooth sailing and I feel I have acquired a wealth of knowledge that surpassed my greatest expectations.
The first class that I would like to discuss is CEP 801. This class is based around learning and teaching in ways that are outside of conventional teachings. We spent a large amount of time creating projects that used different forms of technology that I had no experience with. I was extremely nervous at the beginning of this class for that reason. One of the first projects we did was to create an audio interview that included us discussing a topic of our choice with a student or family member. I chose to interview one of my players at the time about basketball. (The interview can be found in its entirety on my showcase page) In doing this interview it not only gave the professor an opportunity to listen to my teaching and inquiry style it opened a door for me to new tools for teaching. I had never considered using technology in the class room or on the court but that preconceived notion was quickly changed with this class. Another project we did was to create a video showing us teaching a skill or idea to a student or class. I had intended to film part of a practice and use that but we had finished our season so I instead filmed myself teaching long division to my stepson. Again this opened me up to technologies and resources that I would never have considered on my own. I plan on using both audio and visual resources in the future, both in the classroom and on the court because of how useful I have found them to be. Not only is it a great resource for me to show students the world outside of the classroom but also it allows me to be able to film them and show the students things that need to be corrected. (The last part would apply more to coaching than to teaching)
The next class that had a big impact on me was EAD 801. This class helped me get better organized and ready to teach. We focused on researching leadership skills and how they would relate to the classroom and life in general. Also in this class I created a paper that had been the biggest writing project I had ever completed. Our mission was to look at a couple of different topics the professor had pre-selected or come up with one on our own and then research it. The research included interviewing professionals in the field, reading academic papers and books, and putting our work from the course in the paper. The paper needed to be based around leadership so I chose to research the difference between leadership and teaching styles of college professors and college coaches. Since I had little experience as a teacher in contrast to my experience as a coach I wanted to see how closely related or far different they would be. This would give me the opportunity to figure out what aspects of teaching I was lacking and how I could transfer my coaching skills to the classroom. Throughout the research I was able to see the similarities between the two and came to a unique realization. While there were many similarities, which I was hoping, the biggest difference was how they handled discipline in their environments. As coaches we have a tendency to yell and make our players run when they misbehave or we feel they are not paying attention. When I observed the same coaches become teachers in the classroom I was amazed to see the differences in their demeanor. They remained calm and level headed and still were able to maintain control of the classroom. This brought up the question in my head of whether or not yelling and forcing players to run was the best use of time when the coaches obviously had the ability to maintain control of a group of adults without resorting to these other tactics. As I continue to further my career as a coach I intend to remember this research paper and try to become better and calmer as a coach and a teacher.
KIN 857 opened my eyes to the amount of pressure we, as a culture, put on our youth in sports. The main assignment we had in this class was to read a book, Game On, which chronicled our culture on sports from the age of newborn up to that of a teenager. As a child I grew up playing sports beginning in kindergarten and continue to play today. I would not qualify my experience with sports as abnormal or overly competitive but after reading this book I would base that on our culture’s view on sports. Throughout the book the author explores not only sports in our country but sports throughout the world. It was amazing to me to see the contrast in styles of how youth is raised in sports, for example in the U.S. our kids may play twenty to thirty soccer games a year at the age of seven and eight. Yet in Europe the best soccer players usually go to schools during which they may not play a competitive game until they reach the age of fourteen or fifteen and even then it may only be half of the games we play here in the states. As Americans we tell ourselves that this is because we want to be the best in the world but when was the last time the men won a world cup? Our women have a fantastic program and are doing quite well but as a society we are severely behind the European countries. The biggest piece of information I took away from this course was the idea that as a coach I would need to be cautious of burnout. The athletes I will be coaching will have spent the last ten or twelve years playing basketball and will not have experienced the demands of being a college student athlete. Days off will be key to maximizing their experience and output throughout the next four years.
The last class I would like to discuss is KIN 854. This class was about the legal and administrative areas of sports and coaching. The reason I chose to include this class is because it brought great awareness to my otherwise narrow view of safety. As a coach I am always concerned about injuries, but they tend to be the ones that would happen out on the court such as sprains and strains. Serious injuries were something that we always believe will never happen to us or our team. This class proved that theory to be completely wrong. We spent a good portion of the class reading about and discussing different court cases that have happened in the past. As we read about each case it brought a different view of how safety should be handled. Also, it made us aware of areas of concern that might otherwise be overlooked. We spent time creating a contingency plan for events such as an athlete having a heart attack, what to do if there is a major equipment malfunction, and how we should check all areas of the field house a couple of times a month. We also explored the legal complications should we not follow or even have these contingency plans in place. There were cases where people and organizations that were found at fault had to pay heavily for the injuries and results of their poor planning and organization. While this may be enough of a motivator to check equipment and make plans, we as coaches should be motivated to create a safe environment for all participants and fans of the game.
In closing, I have found this experience to be extremely rewarding; not just because I will have completed my graduate degree (which is very exciting) but because I have learned more than I could have ever fathomed. I do not consider myself a technologically confident person yet here I am creating my own personal webpage. I was able to complete the full MAED program online even with a few setbacks and I am proud of that fact. I was amazed to see how far technology has come to even be able to make this program a possibility. The information I have learned in this program will serve me well in my professional life but the confidence I have gained from trying something new and pushing myself out of my comfort zone will last me for the rest of my life both professionally and personally. While I am sad in a way that I will no longer be “logging on” to check work or talk to professors and classmates, I am ready to continue my journey down another path. I will be taking what I have learned and try to make an impact in the lives of those whom I will come into contact with just like this program has had an impact on me.
This began my journey to find a program that I would be able to take and meet the demands of my lifestyle. After four or five months of searching my wife came across the MAED at MSU. As we began to look closer it became clear that this would be the best program for me. It offered me the ability to take classes online and work at my own pace as well as offering me the chance to focus on coaching and further my education in that field. However, the biggest aspect I was excited about was the focus on education and teaching. Since I had less background than most people when it came to teaching it was a great opportunity to learn how to teach.
After my acceptance I began the program in the spring of 2011 taking two classes. The first semester went along fine with no big problems or issues and I was excited to be learning again. Then came the summer; I intended on taking two classes every semester for five semesters and being done within a year and a half but we decided to buy a house in April. We knew it was a fixer upper but we really had no idea until we started to work on it. I ended up dropping my classes from the summer and not taking any in the fall because there was just too much work between my two jobs and the house. When I began again in the spring of 2012 I received and email that there was a problem with my original two classes and I had not received credit for taking them, not a good start to the year. Luckily my advisor and professors were willing to help me out and let me enroll in the classes for that spring and award me the grades I had earned the previous year. From there on it has been smooth sailing and I feel I have acquired a wealth of knowledge that surpassed my greatest expectations.
The first class that I would like to discuss is CEP 801. This class is based around learning and teaching in ways that are outside of conventional teachings. We spent a large amount of time creating projects that used different forms of technology that I had no experience with. I was extremely nervous at the beginning of this class for that reason. One of the first projects we did was to create an audio interview that included us discussing a topic of our choice with a student or family member. I chose to interview one of my players at the time about basketball. (The interview can be found in its entirety on my showcase page) In doing this interview it not only gave the professor an opportunity to listen to my teaching and inquiry style it opened a door for me to new tools for teaching. I had never considered using technology in the class room or on the court but that preconceived notion was quickly changed with this class. Another project we did was to create a video showing us teaching a skill or idea to a student or class. I had intended to film part of a practice and use that but we had finished our season so I instead filmed myself teaching long division to my stepson. Again this opened me up to technologies and resources that I would never have considered on my own. I plan on using both audio and visual resources in the future, both in the classroom and on the court because of how useful I have found them to be. Not only is it a great resource for me to show students the world outside of the classroom but also it allows me to be able to film them and show the students things that need to be corrected. (The last part would apply more to coaching than to teaching)
The next class that had a big impact on me was EAD 801. This class helped me get better organized and ready to teach. We focused on researching leadership skills and how they would relate to the classroom and life in general. Also in this class I created a paper that had been the biggest writing project I had ever completed. Our mission was to look at a couple of different topics the professor had pre-selected or come up with one on our own and then research it. The research included interviewing professionals in the field, reading academic papers and books, and putting our work from the course in the paper. The paper needed to be based around leadership so I chose to research the difference between leadership and teaching styles of college professors and college coaches. Since I had little experience as a teacher in contrast to my experience as a coach I wanted to see how closely related or far different they would be. This would give me the opportunity to figure out what aspects of teaching I was lacking and how I could transfer my coaching skills to the classroom. Throughout the research I was able to see the similarities between the two and came to a unique realization. While there were many similarities, which I was hoping, the biggest difference was how they handled discipline in their environments. As coaches we have a tendency to yell and make our players run when they misbehave or we feel they are not paying attention. When I observed the same coaches become teachers in the classroom I was amazed to see the differences in their demeanor. They remained calm and level headed and still were able to maintain control of the classroom. This brought up the question in my head of whether or not yelling and forcing players to run was the best use of time when the coaches obviously had the ability to maintain control of a group of adults without resorting to these other tactics. As I continue to further my career as a coach I intend to remember this research paper and try to become better and calmer as a coach and a teacher.
KIN 857 opened my eyes to the amount of pressure we, as a culture, put on our youth in sports. The main assignment we had in this class was to read a book, Game On, which chronicled our culture on sports from the age of newborn up to that of a teenager. As a child I grew up playing sports beginning in kindergarten and continue to play today. I would not qualify my experience with sports as abnormal or overly competitive but after reading this book I would base that on our culture’s view on sports. Throughout the book the author explores not only sports in our country but sports throughout the world. It was amazing to me to see the contrast in styles of how youth is raised in sports, for example in the U.S. our kids may play twenty to thirty soccer games a year at the age of seven and eight. Yet in Europe the best soccer players usually go to schools during which they may not play a competitive game until they reach the age of fourteen or fifteen and even then it may only be half of the games we play here in the states. As Americans we tell ourselves that this is because we want to be the best in the world but when was the last time the men won a world cup? Our women have a fantastic program and are doing quite well but as a society we are severely behind the European countries. The biggest piece of information I took away from this course was the idea that as a coach I would need to be cautious of burnout. The athletes I will be coaching will have spent the last ten or twelve years playing basketball and will not have experienced the demands of being a college student athlete. Days off will be key to maximizing their experience and output throughout the next four years.
The last class I would like to discuss is KIN 854. This class was about the legal and administrative areas of sports and coaching. The reason I chose to include this class is because it brought great awareness to my otherwise narrow view of safety. As a coach I am always concerned about injuries, but they tend to be the ones that would happen out on the court such as sprains and strains. Serious injuries were something that we always believe will never happen to us or our team. This class proved that theory to be completely wrong. We spent a good portion of the class reading about and discussing different court cases that have happened in the past. As we read about each case it brought a different view of how safety should be handled. Also, it made us aware of areas of concern that might otherwise be overlooked. We spent time creating a contingency plan for events such as an athlete having a heart attack, what to do if there is a major equipment malfunction, and how we should check all areas of the field house a couple of times a month. We also explored the legal complications should we not follow or even have these contingency plans in place. There were cases where people and organizations that were found at fault had to pay heavily for the injuries and results of their poor planning and organization. While this may be enough of a motivator to check equipment and make plans, we as coaches should be motivated to create a safe environment for all participants and fans of the game.
In closing, I have found this experience to be extremely rewarding; not just because I will have completed my graduate degree (which is very exciting) but because I have learned more than I could have ever fathomed. I do not consider myself a technologically confident person yet here I am creating my own personal webpage. I was able to complete the full MAED program online even with a few setbacks and I am proud of that fact. I was amazed to see how far technology has come to even be able to make this program a possibility. The information I have learned in this program will serve me well in my professional life but the confidence I have gained from trying something new and pushing myself out of my comfort zone will last me for the rest of my life both professionally and personally. While I am sad in a way that I will no longer be “logging on” to check work or talk to professors and classmates, I am ready to continue my journey down another path. I will be taking what I have learned and try to make an impact in the lives of those whom I will come into contact with just like this program has had an impact on me.