COACHING TIPS
GOAL OF THE COMPETITION
Please remember that this is a TEAM BUILDING project as well as an academic challenge. Effective groups are not the ones where everyone is a leader, in middle school or in adulthood. But everyone has a place that is important in the successful group. Help guide your participants in this area.
- Suggest that Sue might be the “secretary”, the one who types the answer sheet to be submitted because she is an effective organizer.
- Declan might be the “project manager”, so to speak, because he expressed great love of the topic when it was released or because he the best student on the team.
- Maybe John, Kathy and Bill should be on the math team as they enjoy and do well in that subject.
- Likewise Carol and Mike should be on the geography contingent.
TIME TO SPEND
Spending every class period preparing for the EGGsam may be too much for some teams. This has been reported to us especially for teams who are competing at the demand of the teacher and not so much the motivation of the student. Conversely, some EGGnoggin teams form study groups that have met on their own in addition to the class time allotted. Please consider your team and gauge accordingly.
PROMOTE THE EXCITEMENT
Middle school students are exceptional because they remain stimulated and excited about things that all too soon become “not cool” to get enthusiastic about. Playing this up can be infectious to the team. The passion, or at least eagerness, of the coach, verbal and non-verbal, over the topic, the competition, and the significance of the topic should not be undervalued or under appreciated. Some amazement or marvel about some facts that are being learned on your part can be a powerful incentive. Reminding these students about all the other groups that are studying this topic at the very same time they are so that they can take that EGGsam at the very same time is likely to arouse the healthy competitive nature they possess.
CAREFULLY READ THE TOPIC RELEASE
The topics for the competitions are often a very extensive matter that can be studied, and this can be mind-boggling. It is easy to veer from the EGGsam material. While the topic is not going to point by point tell the team what to study, it will hopefully narrow the notes somewhat.
DOCUMENTATION
Please try to document sources when answering EGGsam questions. Should there be a question that you feel your team should have had correct, source documentation to submit to the EGGnoggin staff for review makes the review process go more smoothly.
ONE DAY EGGsam OR TWO DAY EGGsam
There has been an increasing trend of coaches requesting to give the EGGsam in two days instead of one because of class periods being approximately 40 minutes long. The EGGsam is designed to be taken in 90 minutes, 75 to take the EGGsam and 15 minutes to wrap up administrative issues such as cleaning up, saving, and submitting the EGGsam. If your class periods are approximately 45 minutes and you would like to do this, please let us know before the day of the EGGsam. Your EGGsam will be sent to you accordingly, and your team must submit their first day answers on that first day.
A FINAL NOTE...
When the topic is released, there will be a large amount of material that can be studied. The topic gives guidelines only because if it gave too many specifics, then the competition would be only an exercise in looking up answers to questions. The students will be given an opportunity to research and hopefully learn a fair amount of material in an atypical classroom environment. Also, this is one of the infrequent times when each student is not required to be tested on the same material. One team member might be studying a history part and another could be researching the geography part. But all learning is good! On the day of the EGGsam if questions are posed that the team has not researched, then that is a good chance to learn in another way—what to do when something must be found out and time is of the essence. The internet is a powerful tool for the situations that arise in the classroom and the later in life in the workplace.