, 2 min, 255 words
Tags: national-ability-center skiing teaching
One of the first things we try to teach most students is the wedge, or "pizza," stop. I recently tried to teach this and ended up a bit surprised by what my student actually learned. In the process, I learned you have to be careful what you're teaching!
I was on my first lesson with a student. I demonstrated a pizza and asked her to imitate me. No response. I asked her to show me a pizza with her arms. No response. I pushed her heels out and complimented her on her pizza. Great! My volunteer (thank you NAC volunteers!) and I did this a few times, always reinforcing the motion with praise and high fives. Then, later in the lesson, I asked the student to do a pizza. She looked satisfied, as if the request made sense in a way it hadn't previously, then bent over and tapped her hands against her boots.
What happened? She learned exactly what we taught her! When we said pizza, we pushed on her heels with our hands and then congratulated her. So when we asked her to do it herself, she tapped her heels with her hands and beamed at us.
Oops. The takeaway: our students are totally learning from us, just not necessarily what we intend. Be careful what you're teaching them!
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