Jay Wright had four core values at Villanova. But the real key was how he implemented them is an interesting NY Times article about the former Villanova basketball coach.
It highlights what he considered his four core values when he was coaching. He says after each game the coaching staff would assign point value for each one for each player.
I wouldn’t do that in the classroom, but I think if you substitute “learn” for the word “play” in most of these, it would work for the classroom, and I’d have students do a self-evaluation each week on how they did:
1. Play hard.
“We wanted to play hard every time we stepped on the floor.”
2. Play together.
“We wanted to think of each other and think about how our actions affected each other.”
3. Play smart.
“We wanted to learn how to get better every day.”
4. Play with pride.
“We wanted to have pride in our program and play for the name on the front of our jerseys, not the back.”
I think that could make for a very impactful reflective exercise.
