Post-match thoughts

Our first game did not deliver the victory we had expected. We faced a team from a predominantly Latino school, and their organization, spacing, and comfort on the ball were so superior. We lost 8 to 0!!! Oh well, I am still so proud of my students because we never gave up, we continued to play together, and we had such great sportsmanship that the other coach complimented us. He said that he'd never seen players offering to help up opponents when they fall the way my kids did. A lot of thoughts are running through my head. About how to improve the on field performance of the team, I've decided to play 11 v 11 during our practices, with special zones on the wide areas of the field where no defenders can go. This should encourage us to stay organized, well-spaced, and play the ball to wide areas. Thinking about how to improve my players academic performance, their literacy, their self-image as learners is an entirely more complicated matter. I want to establish some qualitative baseline data around how they view themselves right now. What are the first words that come to their minds when asked to describe themselves? How might these words change by the end of the year? So I plan on having a short questionnaire for them that they can paste into their soccer journals tomorrow. I also want to incorporate more goal setting around their academic lives. I'd like them to report their grades in the 1st quarter via their progress reports, and their goal grades for the end of the 1st quarter. And I want them to consider the steps they will need to reach those goals.