Pssst...1950 called and said it is time to stop allowing kids to pick teams in adult organized situations.
Can you imagine being eight years old and having two of your peers pick everyone in your class before you? Now imagine you’re the last one left and the two captains have the "you can just have him on your team" discussion or better yet they argue about not wanting you on their team! So not only does neither team want you, but they really don’t even want you to play. Besides renting a flashing billboard that says "we don’t want you here", is there anything you can think of that could push a child’s self-esteem lower than that in front of their peers?
There’s a
lot of people that will complain that we’re trying to change too many things
and we’re losing who we are. I can't disagree with that on A LOT of levels, but picking teams is NOT one of those
things that we need to hold onto. As camp counselors, teachers or anyone who works with kids, we are
responsible for planning for the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive
well-being of the people in our charge. We are looking out for EVERYONE'S well being, not just the athletic, popular ones. This has been going on
so long that some people probably haven't even analyzed the effect it could have on a child's self esteem.
When people find out I'm a PE teacher,
I am always faced with EXTREMELY strong feelings. When it comes to people recalling their
childhood memories of physical education, they loved it, they hated it, but very rarely will they be indifferent about the situation. Why? Because they were exposed for all to see and not always in a fair way. I grew up in a time when physical education is where the strong got stronger, and the weak were pushed to the side. Do you remember being out first, picked last, and 25 people watching you attempt to climb a rope. (Was there really nothing else they could think of having us do, then have 25 people watch one classmate climb a rope?) Your success and failure were on display for all to see.
When I was
a physical education major at William Paterson University, I was fortunate enough to have Dr. Virginia Overdorf who challenged us in a way that has never left me. She asked us how many people in our class were picked last in phys ed or on the playground on a
consistent basis. We were asked to stand up if this were true. We were in a room of PE Majors; most of us
were former high school or current college athletes so as you could imagine
none one of us stood up. We were the ones picked first or second or we were the captain who picked the teams. She challenged us to look out for all of our kids regardless of their experience, skill, or interest level.
Here are
some ideas for picking teams - In school I only get to see my kids for 45 minutes a week, so I move very quickly when it comes to picking teams.
- Pre-plan the teams - write them down, and quickly read them off.
- Use a randomizer like Team Shake or Class Dojo (You can
even program some of these apps to have desired outcomes such as keeping apart certain "friends" who become "unfriendly" when they are together. 😉😉) More info on Team Shake
- Number off - 1's go here, 2's go there and you have two teams pretty quickly.
- Number off 1-4 - I have found that kids love variety in a game. If you have them number off by 4's, you can have the 1's and 2's play the 3's and 4's for the first round and then have the 1's and 3's be on a team for the next round.
- Birthday months - With birthday months it's very possible to create uneven teams. If you are concerned with uneven teams, call out birthday months and just have them stand. Then quickly separate the standing people into teams that are as even as possible.
- Partner pick and divide - One of my personal favorites (a way of messing
with the kids a little bit) is to have everyone find a partner and line up directly
across from their partner so they are in two lines facing one another. One line
becomes one team in the other line because the other team so all partners have
been broken up. Reasoning behind this is the kids normally hang out with
students of the same interest levels and this is usually a really good way of
breaking the kids up by skill level.
- Cards - give everyone a card - Have them do a Survivor Style reveal. You flip your card and it tells you which team your on. You could do this with any kind of objects that you have lots of. Just need to make sure that you have an equal amount of objects and students.
- Pinnies - Have them grab a pinnie out a bag without looking. Whatever color pinnie they get, that's what team they are on.
- Here is a link from PE Central for some other ideas to pick teams.
PE Central Team Picking Ideas
The WHOLE SCHOOL RULE
In my opinion, picking teams falls under the whole school rule. I would rather have every kid in the whole school mad at me for not allowing them to pick teams, then to have one student be put in the position of not feeling wanted or welcome in our class! Honestly, the kids just want to play, so the picking of the teams rarely becomes a big issue in my class.
The Caveat
You have to love caveats! It gives us all the chance to disclaim anything we just claimed! So here is a caveat to allowing kids to pick teams.
Us adults, in our infinite wisdom, have tried to micromanage every single minute of every single day for our children. In some instances, we have tried to mull every single possible thing that can ever go wrong for them and fix it before it happens. We need to understand that we are taking away valuable learning opportunities from our kids in doing so.
If they pick teams at recess, and they are being respectful, let them be. If you give them free time, then let it be free. If they choose to pick teams, no matter how difficult that might be for you, it might be best to step away and let them figure it out for themselves. It's an opportunity for them to grow. The kid who is going to be picked last in this situation signed up for it. They knew what they were getting into. They knew how the teams would be picked and they chose to play anyway.
A lot of times at recess, they have about 20 minutes to organize, mobilize, negotiate, figure captains, pick teams, decide rules and still have enough time to play. It's actually extraordinary that kids are able to do that in such a short time especially in this age of video games, "smart" devices, and over organized sports. Could you imagine what it would be like if you got a committee of 40 adults together and asked them to come up with a plan and implement it in 20 minutes?
If we step in, we send a message to the kids that what they were doing wasn’t good enough.
I sincerely hope this helps! If you have any questions or comments please feel free to leave them below. Make today GREAT and KEEP MOVING!
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Mark Housel has taught countless 1000's of kids in 10 schools, 5 districts, and 3 different counties in NJ. Housel has been a Health and PE Teacher for over 20 years in NJ. He has a Bachelors in Exercise Science and a Masters in Education. He is owner and CEO of Housel Fun & Fitness. www.houselfitness.com He is a also a workshop presenter and runs staff training for camps and schools.
