2024-04-01

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Now that I have a reasonable number of students, I’m considering moving to an attendance-based exam eligibility system. Presently I have no system. I schedule rank exams approximately every four months and anyone who’s been with me since the previous exam (give or take a bit) is allowed to test. That’s been working fine so far, but now I’m starting to get students who take a few weeks off here, or students who only attend once a week. At the same time, I’ve got students who show up to every single class. Understandably, those groups are progressing at different rates. As of now, I’m planning to implement attendance cards after this next kyu exam, to track attendance and eligibility consistently, and help teach students responsibility by marking themselves as present for the day.

In other news, I had three new students in the youth and family class tonight, which made for record attendance. That meant “rewinding” a bit to go over things like how to make a front stance, how to make a fist, etc., but I think they all enjoyed themselves and may stick with it.

2024-03-End

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

My day job was really busy for the last half of the month and I just didn’t take the time to write my normal journal entries. That’s an excuse, of course. I have the same 24 hours in every day that everyone else does. I just prioritized other things. As I recall, most of our time has been spent preparing for our upcoming kyu grading on April 11. The youth and family class is doing quite well. The adult class is also doing well, but in this case everyone has their own special something they need to improve. One student just needs to put in more time practicing kata at home. Another needs to work on bringing the legs together while moving. Several need to ratchet up their spirit a notch or two.