Practice in a Nutshell

Announcements

Cryptids

I am so excited for Cryptids that… I jumped the gun. When I’m planning for fencing I always plan a week ahead so I can prepare for supplies, and contact those running the practice, etc. When I announced last week that Cryptids was starting this week, I meant next week… Too confusing? Here is a schedule: (which you can conveniently use to ask for work off, and plan around funerals, weddings, second-cousins-best-friends-birthdays, or any other inconvenient to fencing-related events.)

Cryptids Dates

• May 7, 2021: Bipedal Hominids
• May 28, 2021: Bipedal Hominids
• June 11, 2021: Myths and Legends
• July 2, 2021: Myths and Legends
• July 23, 2021: Sea Creatures, Lake Monsters, and Wyrms in General
• August 27, 2021: WOODLAND WAR, Sea Creatures, Lake Monsters and Wyrms in General
• August 28, 2021: WOODLAND WAR, Last vote, and tournament finale between all the brackets

The week before each Cryptid night we will randomly draw for the tournament bracket and the melees the Cryptids will be fighting in.

Each of these dates also includes our voting bracket of Horrors Uncategorized, which will be introduced at the beginning of the night, and voted on at the end. Bring a dollar or two each week to buy your ‘Vote For X,’ bling ribbon so you can intim… I mean encourage your fellow citizens into voting for your favored Cryptid!

You may have noticed these events are a little all over the place. This was to work around camp, holidays, and divide the time spent on the theme between Open and Melee days. This way we will still get to celebrate annual favorites like Bastille Day and have room for Swordsman and Student lead days. This spring and summer are going to be packed with crazy fun! Any bits of the tournament that don’t get done on this schedule will be concluded at Woodland War. Hooray, this is going to be so fun!

Shay’s Thoughts

As we move into this experiment of training students in a more individualized way, I had a thought for potential teachers. I fully recognize that you’re going to have your own style of teaching. You will really connect with some students, and barely touch others. Everyone learns differently. That is fine. So don’t worry. Please strive to use the E.D.G.E. method, and cover the material in the actual lesson. But how you do that is up to you. Add your pro tips, share your experiences. Be yourself and go for it. You were authorized to teach, so be you.

I do want to tell you about the best teacher I ever had though. I feel like there are some really powerful traits that if we all try to emulate we will become even better teachers. Her name was Sue. She was my business programs instructor in college. She taught me how to use Word, Excel, and a few other programs. Now, to put it mildly, I don’t care for fiddley technology. So this class was a real trial for me. But, because of Sue, it ended up being my favorite in all my college experience. I love her.

Sue presented very simply. She came well prepared, you could tell she knew far more than she said in the first explanation. She valued a brief uncomplicated initial lecture and a chance for us to internalize before she gave us the next step. She gave very clear visual examples and small specific challenges. As we worked on those challenges in class she would come around and help us individually. This is where I really fell in love with her teaching. Any time any of us had a question she would approach us with calm patience and ask us to define what the issue was. She would then ask what we had already tried to solve the problem on our own. She listened so intentionally. That was particularly impressive to me. She wasn’t listening to respond or condemn us. She was listening to understand. She never made anyone feel stupid. She didn’t rush us. She helped students think through the problems without feeding us answers. She worked with us from where we were. Individually. And when one student would make a breakthrough she highlighted it for the class to learn from. When she sensed we were losing patience with a problem she kindly offered suggestions. Sue expected a lot from us. The workload in her class was immense! But she constantly expressed confidence in us that we could accomplish it. And because she treated us with love and kindness, and because she believed in us, we had confidence in ourselves.

Honestly, I never worked as hard in any class, ever, as I did in Sue’s class. And I came out with nearly perfect marks too. I learned so much, and not all of it was business programs.

Hopefully there is something in there that you can incorporate into your teaching style. Love you guys!