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Post by jrk5150 on Mar 22, 2017 5:55:09 GMT -6
So based on some of the ideas here I will be giving my "at risk" academic kids a travel sheet. On the days we have weights they will pick up the travel sheet in my office and have each teacher for that day fill it out with information such as homework done, homework tonight, comments, etc. This will be their entry ticket into weight room. No travel sheet equals no weights. What suggestions do you have if students are failing a class for example? I feel just turning them away from weights without a plan to fix the problem isn't totally productive. Be careful with what you consider "at risk" - meaning, have a quantifiable definition of what that means and make sure it can be documented. Do NOT fall into the "no good deed goes unpunished" trap, you know damn well some parent is going to be a busy-body and get bent out of shape that you're holding his/her precious snowflake accountable, and will come up with a reason you're doing it that's NOT academically driven... And you're dead on with your second point. Sure, you can simply set your standards and hold them accountable, with no further action taken. Not your problem, you're not their parent nor their academic teacher. That said, it sure would benefit the kid(s) if you had a plan. Of the top of my head - access to tutoring, and access to a safe place/time to do homework. I'm sure plenty of kids have a home situation that isn't exactly conducive to getting stuff done.
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Post by rosey65 on Mar 22, 2017 6:20:27 GMT -6
We have study hall, the kids are spread out among the coaches in the building. Kids get a lot of work done, or they copy a dictionary if they "dont have" homework. Sure, the kids who intrinsically study find it a waste of time, but we are an inner-city school with a lot of academic issues. Our 3-days/week study hall really helps us keep track of our at-risk kids. We can make sure they are in with a tutor, or completely credit-recovery courses on a computer. We have a lot of kids with no computer, internet, or even electricity at their house. A bulk of our team gets a lot of work done with study hall.
We dont remove kids who have grade issues. We WANT them with us and around us, so we can put them on a computer in front of us, and help them as needed get thru their work.
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jeremiahd86
Freshmen Member
Poise Gentlemen... Champs Dont Choke
Posts: 40
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Post by jeremiahd86 on Mar 22, 2017 10:20:07 GMT -6
Mandatory Saturday study hall for the guys with D's and F's they have to stay for two hours while coaches complete film work and complete homework assignments or study. We do this in a computer lab and all of our guys did well with it and would actually come voluntarily to get stuff done. The coaches were already going to be in there and who ever was assigned would just do film review from the comp lab.
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Post by lions23 on Mar 22, 2017 12:26:43 GMT -6
We have a paid academic "coach." She has counselor access so that she can look up all kids grades and keep track of them. She pulls them out of PE to do extra work. She keep kids till 3:15 during off season to help kids that need it. She sends transcripts and keeps in touch with college recruiters. She is trained special ed teacher so I think that helps her a bunch. She loves being called coach. This has taken some work to get her an extra free period to do this. We had to give up part of a on field stipend to pay for her. It took some behind the scenes work to get her access to all of the kids grades since she is not a counselor. However, after a bunch of our low average kids started getting to college and a bunch of at risk to repeat kids started graduating the admin loved it.
We have study hall Mon-Wed during the season. Kids who do well and don't necessarily need it get special privileges during that time. Everyone else is required to be there. Gives the students time to go and talk with teachers if they need to. Teachers also know there is a time to come help a kid or even have an intervention with coach and student.
Ours isn't perfect, but it very beneficial. In order to get kids on your side I think that you also have to give them more than just football. You have to be willing to give them things that will be a greater benefit than just football.
Not everyone will get through, not everyone will get to college, but it won't be for lack of trying on our part.
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Post by fkaboneyard on Mar 22, 2017 14:06:40 GMT -6
I just quit coaching at a private school that would give me grade reports on any student I asked for at any time. I quickly learned who was a poor student so I focused on them. Telling them I would bench them was meaningless because the school would pull them if they had 2+ D's or 1 F.
I just joined the staff of a nearby public school and the HC said he asks position coaches to get grade reports every Monday. He says he benches kids with poor grades but I'll believe it when I see it.
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Post by fantom on Mar 22, 2017 14:43:44 GMT -6
I'm not a fan of keeping players from working out in the offseason. A lot of kids, mainly skill players, don't like working out anyway. Kicking them out of the weight room isn't much of a punishment.
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Post by huddlehut on Mar 22, 2017 18:04:01 GMT -6
Honestly, I am amazed at the amount of time and effort you guys put into the academic stuff! I guess that we've been lucky because all we do is check up on our players on the computer (we can access their grades) and if anyone is having difficulties we address it. No study hall, no tutoring, or punishment. Haven't lost a kid to grades in years.
We have "normal" kids. No gifted parents or any of that stuff. Heck, if a high school student needs all of that other stuff to motivate them to stay eligible, then you've got big problems!
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Post by peacock1915 on Mar 22, 2017 18:58:50 GMT -6
We punish for lack of effort zero's. So every 4-5 weeks I check their grades and any grade below a 75 I pull up and see why, any zero for no homework or just something they didn't do they get punished for. This at least makes them turn something in usually and helps keep their grades up if they aren't good at tests. In season if I check the first time and they are failing more than one class I talk to them and tell them the next check if they are still failing more than one they will miss playing time.
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Post by mbianco on Mar 22, 2017 19:09:06 GMT -6
I'm not a fan of keeping players from working out in the offseason. A lot of kids, mainly skill players, don't like working out anyway. Kicking them out of the weight room isn't much of a punishment. I agree with this but what good is it for a kid to come to weights all off season but failing classes and not being eligible to play when the season comes around? How are you handling your athletes in the off season who are struggling academically?
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Post by fantom on Mar 22, 2017 19:22:40 GMT -6
I'm not a fan of keeping players from working out in the offseason. A lot of kids, mainly skill players, don't like working out anyway. Kicking them out of the weight room isn't much of a punishment. I agree with this but what good is it for a kid to come to weights all off season but failing classes and not being eligible to play when the season comes around? How are you handling your athletes in the off season who are struggling academically? We'll talk with their teachers and find out what the problem is. Sometimes-not usually but it's not terribly unusual- the problem is that the kid is in over his head (Everybody should take an AP class? Yeah, sure). We'll talk with the parent and discuss a schedule change. Normally, of course, the problem is lack of effort. Again, we'll talk with the parent. The coaches may provide some extra motivation but if the parent insists on pulling the kid until he gets his chit straight, that's their decision and we won't argue.
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Post by newhope on Mar 23, 2017 12:48:54 GMT -6
I had one today. Teacher came to me shortly after lunch about player sleeping in class, not doing work, grades slipping. The next period I was at his classroom door, pulled him out, explained that we weren't going to tolerate that type of effort on or off the field. He had goals he wanted to achieve in football, but that kind of effort wouldn't get him there and I expected immediate improvement. I then saw his position coach after school and simply said, now we will find out if he's our running back or not. If he doesn't care enough about it to fix his classroom effort, then he's not our guy. Start looking for someone else. If he straightens up, then we can count on him because it means something to him. To me, it's pretty much that simple, at least as far as classroom effort and behavior are concerned. If they don't care enough to do what you ask there, they will kill you during the season because it won't mean enough then, either.
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Post by mbianco on Mar 24, 2017 18:54:20 GMT -6
Excellent points by both. Well said.
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Post by rosey65 on Mar 27, 2017 5:52:26 GMT -6
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Post by lions23 on Mar 27, 2017 12:39:50 GMT -6
Honestly, I am amazed at the amount of time and effort you guys put into the academic stuff! I guess that we've been lucky because all we do is check up on our players on the computer (we can access their grades) and if anyone is having difficulties we address it. No study hall, no tutoring, or punishment. Haven't lost a kid to grades in years. We have "normal" kids. No gifted parents or any of that stuff. Heck, if a high school student needs all of that other stuff to motivate them to stay eligible, then you've got big problems! Your right! We would have big problems if we weren't proactive. We have issues with poverty, neglect, physical and drug abuse, homelessness, and etc... (I'm not trying to be snarky) Truth is many of our kids are tough and really good survivors but they don't have the skills and habits we are trying to instill. Surviving isn't the same as thriving and we are trying to teach and push towards thriving. So we chose to accept those realities and create some solutions. I wish it wasn't necessary but it is. I find we are coaching less football and doing more of this and we have become more successful. Kids know we care so they care more. We take care of some of those other hierarchies they need to fulfill and their football gets better too. Sometimes I wonder about teaching and coaching where study hall and such weren't needed but I'm sure there would be another issue to deal with. I haven't had hardly a negative parent interaction in years. They aren't involved or they super supportive of all the things we do. Others I know have to deal with parents all the time. That sounds terrible to me but I'm sure some of you got that figured out.
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fugulookinat
Junior Member
"Eye see DEAD people!"
Posts: 437
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Post by fugulookinat on Mar 28, 2017 9:49:39 GMT -6
We give helmet stickers for academics. Each athlete will receive 3 stars for every A and 2 stars for every B. Kids want their helmets all decked out with decals, so they work hard at keeping their grades up. We will also "Condition" all athletes with any grade below an 82, after practice Monday-Wednesday. If all of their grades are above an 82, they get out of the "Conditioning" and get to hit the showers early. Works pretty well for us.
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Post by Chris Clement on Mar 28, 2017 13:38:43 GMT -6
82? Isn't that out of reach for a good number of your kids?
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fugulookinat
Junior Member
"Eye see DEAD people!"
Posts: 437
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Post by fugulookinat on Mar 28, 2017 16:16:57 GMT -6
82 is 3 points away from a C, that's as close as we are comfortable with. We will have kids that will fall below that, but, because that is their goal, we rarely have an athlete fail a class and become ineligible. We tell our kids that they have to make A's and B's to give themselves a chance to meet NCAA eligibility requirements.
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Post by runitupthemiddle on Mar 30, 2017 12:12:06 GMT -6
Best thing I've been apart of is just emailing or walking down the hall and visiting with your fellow teachers, let them know You value academics too.
Other things We have done is, grade checks for everyone at the 3 week mark, if they don't bring it back, they roll every day till they do. After that the smart/good kids we don't worry about, they will get one more check during the season is it. The ones we have identified as being potential grade problems do weekly checks. Which in our state we have weekly ineligible/ probation list, which list the average. But with the checks, we know if they are just not turning it in , or really don't understand. The emails help with this too. And really it's maybe 5-9 kids each year that we have to worry about. Other than that it's easy peasy
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Post by runitupthemiddle on Mar 30, 2017 12:15:52 GMT -6
So based on some of the ideas here I will be giving my "at risk" academic kids a travel sheet. On the days we have weights they will pick up the travel sheet in my office and have each teacher for that day fill it out with information such as homework done, homework tonight, comments, etc. This will be their entry ticket into weight room. No travel sheet equals no weights. What suggestions do you have if students are failing a class for example? I feel just turning them away from weights without a plan to fix the problem isn't totally productive. Be careful with what you consider "at risk" - meaning, have a quantifiable definition of what that means and make sure it can be documented. Do NOT fall into the "no good deed goes unpunished" trap, you know damn well some parent is going to be a busy-body and get bent out of shape that you're holding his/her precious snowflake accountable, and will come up with a reason you're doing it that's NOT academically driven... And you're dead on with your second point. Sure, you can simply set your standards and hold them accountable, with no further action taken. Not your problem, you're not their parent nor their academic teacher. That said, it sure would benefit the kid(s) if you had a plan. Of the top of my head - access to tutoring, and access to a safe place/time to do homework. I'm sure plenty of kids have a home situation that isn't exactly conducive to getting stuff done. I have been at schools that require these "drag" sheets is what they called them. Now 90 percent of the time the parents had to want them to do these drag sheets, or have parent teacher conference or counselor calls, this was suggested as means to help the situation
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Post by runitupthemiddle on Mar 30, 2017 12:43:28 GMT -6
That's kinda a moment where I have to put the "Building Good Men" hat on and accept that they are going to have improved academics which is important for their future.
Idk your schedule, but if it is a decent amount of kids who are impactful to your team, could you move your practice start time to a later point?
We do have a miss practice you miss a quarter policy, but coming to practice after finishing our study hall doesn't count toward that. This school I am at now had been a traditional loser which all players are gone after the first grade cut came out. We HAVE to put academic policies in place because these kids culturally as a school had not been achieving much in academics on their own.
I would have been okay with it if I could have benched the kids that missed practice, regardless of whether they would help us or not. I did so in our second or third game of the season as our starting FB/ILB and QB/CB missed three practices to write a paper that they blew off in class. It turned into a giant sh-t show with the AD basically echoing what the parents said. He saw my point of view but tapped out on it and didn't back me up. I benched kids for it throughout the season and it was a fight every time. I asked for some sort of compromise to be written into the athletic handbook but they wouldn't touch it. What about standards to play football? Be at practice , be on time, don't embarrass the school, team, family etc etc? If u aren't at practice, how does one know what to do? Do u have an athletic period?
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Post by coachcb on Mar 30, 2017 13:30:45 GMT -6
I would have been okay with it if I could have benched the kids that missed practice, regardless of whether they would help us or not. I did so in our second or third game of the season as our starting FB/ILB and QB/CB missed three practices to write a paper that they blew off in class. It turned into a giant sh-t show with the AD basically echoing what the parents said. He saw my point of view but tapped out on it and didn't back me up. I benched kids for it throughout the season and it was a fight every time. I asked for some sort of compromise to be written into the athletic handbook but they wouldn't touch it. What about standards to play football? Be at practice , be on time, don't embarrass the school, team, family etc etc? If u aren't at practice, how does one know what to do? Do u have an athletic period? No, we didn't have an athletic period. I stood my ground in the situation and benched kids that missed practice because of study-hall. However, the AD wouldn't allow me to boot the kids from the team that missed more than three practices (as per our team policy) because "the kids are student athletes, not athletic students". I couldn't win, one way or another.
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Post by newhope on Apr 6, 2017 12:21:07 GMT -6
We've arranged our practice times around academics at two schools. We go early (2:45) on Monday (film and practice) and Thursday (practice with JV game later). Tuesdays and Thursdays we don't start until 4:00, giving them time to get tutoring, extra help, etc from teachers. At both schools, teachers were required to offer those after school sessions.
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Post by Coach Vint on Apr 6, 2017 13:18:44 GMT -6
I have not been in a school yet where the majority of kids get good parental support. We don't do the work for them and we don't hold their hand, but we do provide them a path and some support. We use football as a catalyst to help them be able to better their lives. Many of our kids would fail if we didn't check their grades and provide them the academic support they don't get from home. We also have kids with the ability to play college football that need to improve their grades. Most of our students will be the first in their family to go to college. I know college isn't for everyone, and we have an outstanding technical education program. But for our kids that want to pursue college, we don't want academics to be the stumbling block. This was our first year here, and we had some seniors that we inherited that lost scholarship opportunities because of their GPA.
1. We do grade checks each week year round. 2. Anyone with a 75 or below does some bear crawls. We also require kids who are failing to go to mandatory tutorials with their teachers. 3. We read positive and negative emails from teachers with the entire team.
After reading the posts here I have gotten some additional good ideas. There are a lot of ways to do this, and each situation is different.
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