Doing What You Love
by Colleen Guzman
It is no secret that humans are complex creatures, often filled with mystery and definitely multi-faceted. I am no exception to that rule. I am practically an onion considering all of my layers. I am a teacher, currently a college student, I create tabletop games with my spouse, I am on a weekly YouTube show with my spouse, I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, best friend, and so on and so on. One additional layer I have is my love for the sport of football. I love the strength, agility, athleticism, brute force, tackles and physicality of the sport. I have loved the sport of football since I was a young girl. In junior high I tried to start a petition so I could play football for the team in the small Texas town where I attended junior high. I was denied and laughed at but I went and watched practices and helped clean up equipment and watched games on television and in person when I could. I lived football as much as I could. As I got older I began to give up my dreams of playing football and I simply enjoyed the sport. Fast forward through a lot of interesting life choices and now I am a 36 year old woman getting ready to be a teacher. I actually looked to see if a woman could be a boys football coach (it seems in theory you can but in all practicality not so much). So I went with science and I have been doing that ever since. Then six years into my career I get the most amazing experience of my life and it is all thanks to a coach who wants to build school community.
When the email came in I had to read it numerous times just to make sure I had read it properly. The head football coach had sent an email letting teachers know that he was going to let us be guest coaches for one of the home games for either the 7th grade team or 8th grade team or for both teams. We would get to stand on the sidelines with the team, encourage them and talk to them and help the coaches, we could even come to practices if we wanted to learn about what they were doing. Was he kidding? Was this a dream? I just couldn't believe what I was reading but I was certainly glad to jump on board with this idea, so I signed up for an 8th grade game and a 7th grade game.
I had no idea what to expect from the experience. I was truly hoping to get to learn something about coaching and to increase my relationship with the students. I got so much more than I expected. The coaches were so welcoming to me, they included me in the practices and even let me work with small groups of boys, they saw my value and made me feel that value. It was so special to be a part of the team, to grow that relationship with my peers and my current and former students. None of them could know how much this meant to me because they never had to try to fight just to get to play a game. I grew up in an era where women were not allowed in football but these boys have had girls on their team and they've never lived in a time when girls were not allowed to play. They didn't see me as less of a valuable coach because I was a woman, they thought it was incredible that I knew so much and I could help them with their stance and I could root for them and encourage them and understand the plays. I was on cloud nine and enjoying every minute of it. The experience was topped off when the head coach let me speak to the boys at the end of the game. (There are tears in my eyes now just remembering the experience.) Me, little me, I am not a coach I have no official experience as a coach I am just an amateur football fan but the coach wanted me to talk to the boys after their game, give them the big inspirational speech that would carry them into their evenings and into their game the following week. I felt so privileged and I tried to ensure that I was tough on the boys the way a male coach would be but that I was also encouraging and told them how special and wonderful they were and how much the experience meant to me. The coaches patted me on the back and thanked me and the kids seemed thrilled so I think I did okay.
The overall experience was wonderful and I would do it again and again and again if I could. The biggest lesson I learned from this is that it is never too late to do what you love and to spread the joy of that love to the people around you. I never would have had the opportunity if the coach had not taken the chance on having teachers helping on the sidelines. My students would never know that women used to be unable to play football if I hadn't shared my experience with them. I may never have made the connections to my peers that I made through this experience. There was just too many wonderful things that came from this experience for me to list them all, so just know that if you truly love something you should keep at it and you should share it with as many people as you can so they too can experience that joy and love.
Aside from teaching Pre-AP science and general education science I have also been provided with 1 section of GT (gifted and talented) science. Many people, including many of the students, believe that GT students are just smarter Pre-AP students but that is not actually the case. GT students are capable of Pre-AP work but they are also so much more, especially when it comes to their thought processes. GT students have a different depth of thought and a broader scope of thought and as their teacher it is my responsibility to increase that scope and have them expand those GT
Once the students have chosen the "ologist" and considered the cell from that perspective then I have them create a wanted poster or brochure where the "ologist" is asking for the cell to come help them with their branch of knowledge. We studied plant and animal cells so the students had to specify which cell the "ologist" wanted to come help them out. I also decided to let the students use the Chromebooks in order to research the "ologies" and to create their final product. I was impressed with some of the results because some of the students said they wanted both cell types. For example, one student wanted plant cells to study for herbology and animal cells so they could see how the herbs affected the animal cells. Overall I thought this was a great way to get the students to expand their thinking and I will be continuing to use this technique of thinking to expand the way students view things.
