Last Updated31 May 2022

Teaching Children explores how lessons will change when teaching children, as one of the major groups of people we teach in snowboarding. We may have different ideas on how to interact with children, because at one time we were all kids ourselves. This chapter presents specific tools, tactics and considerations for teaching and interacting with children.

Creative Lesson Building

Being a creative children’s teacher comes naturally for some but has to be worked on and developed by others. A lot of the best creative lessons are those that are spontaneous and created on the fly. They are usually fun and engaging and fully captivate the student’s attention. A good creative children’s lesson should still follow the Play-Skill/Adventure-Summary model.

Spider Webbing

Spider webbing is a formula for building creative lessons. The instructor takes ideas, language and concepts from different aspects of the students’ lives outside of snowboarding, then adapts and transforms them into the activities, to help achieve a desired outcome.

Essentially, we are learning to speak the students’ language so that they will understand and enjoy what we are presenting. It can be a very effective way of teaching children and can also work for adults.

There are four steps we go through when using the spider webbing technique:

Step 1

Here, the instructor collects raw material for creativity. The instructor should constantly be asking questions, talking to the group/individual and processing as many ideas as possible. It is important to ask open-ended questions about your students’ interests outside of snowboarding. These may include sporting activities, hobbies, favourite school subjects or their job. With the information received the instructor is able to brainstorm with formulating a lesson plan, whilst gaining an understanding of the students’ knowledge.

Example

With a child who likes painting, you could ask the following questions: “What types of pictures do you enjoy painting the most?” “Tell me about the kind of brushes you use, are they thick and thin brushes?” “How do you create texture with the paint and what effect does that have on the picture?”

Step 2

This is where the ideas and understanding gathered in step 1 are transformed into possible actions or ways to move on a snowboard. When the instructor formulates ideas, they should aim to use terminology that relates to what they understand and know. Difficulties at this stage can occur if not enough information was gathered previously in the first step. Instructors can develop their abilities here by writing down new ideas as they arise. The most efficient way to create new ideas is by having fun, letting our imagination run wild and visualising new possibilities.

Example

When considering the information to present to a child who enjoys painting, you could use language such as: “Let’s imagine that the mountain is our canvas and we are going to paint a series of pictures. Thinking of the snowboard as a paintbrush, we are going to make different brush strokes on the snow. We can explore making thin and thick paintbrush marks, making our turns smooth like painting with runny paint, or stopping quickly like sticky paint. We can draw arcs around the nose of your board.”

Step 3

Here, the instructor decides which actions or activities are best and should be continued with. This decision considers the students’ abilities, inefficiencies and goals. Thought should also be given to creating progressive steps that build towards the skill being developed but utilises the relevant ideas and concepts created in the previous phases.

Example

When teaching a straight run and J-turn to first-time students who like to paint, you might explain this by using sentences such as:

“First we will use our snowboard like a paintbrush to make a nice straight line. Standing in our ready-to-paint-stance so the brush doesn't make a wobbly line and stays nice and smooth.”

“Now let’s try to make a curved brush stroke by slowly and gently leaning on the brush."

"It helps to look and point where you want your brush to go."

"That was a very thin brush stroke, try leaning a little less and see if you can make a thicker brush stroke.”

Step 4

This is where the ideas are put into action on the snow. To be successful with this, the instructor needs the ability to incorporate the theme or concept into an activity or progression, creating strong understanding for the student whilst still achieving the desired outcome. At the completion of the lesson, hopefully the students have had such a great experience that they return for another lesson, or at least continue to snowboard. Instructors can develop their abilities here by being courageous and letting go of self-doubt.

Hot Tip

Spider webbing is a formula for creative teaching that aids understanding and helps establish ownership of new skills. Do not be afraid to work through a bit of trial and error here as it may take time to become effective at creative teaching. With practice, you will be presenting fantastic lessons and fuelling the STOKE of your students. Remember it is not about what you know. It’s all about what they know!

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