Students learned a lesson during a 2nd period gym class in the Cave, an old gym room in Central Middle School. The students were put into teams for a volleyball game. One student played volleyball for 5 years on a advance team. For others this was their first time playing volleyball in school.
Immediately, the gym teacher blew his whistle and the game started. One kid on the opposing team served the ball. The ball flew over the net and headed straight towards a student that was shaking a bit and sweating as she stood facing the oncoming ball. The ball hurtled towards the girl. With a "terrified expression on her face", as said by some students who were witnesses to this event, the girl jumped backwards, bumped into another student, and fell to the ground, her face turning bright red as some of her teammates laughed at her. The kid with experience in playing volleyball shouted "Your supposed to hit the ball, not step away from it!" A few kids laughed at his comment, others gave the boy "glowering looks" with their arms tightly crossed across their chests. Some gave the girl "pitiful looks" and helped her off the ground. The girl grunted as she got up and wiped away the small tears trickling down her face. The girl took tiny steps back into her place and had a "doleful expression etched into her face". The team rotated and the girl took her spot in the back, the servers place. The girl steadied her shaking hands and took a deep breath and brought her hand back. The girl gently hit the ball and it fell on the ground and rolled under the net. "Come on" kids shrieked as they looked at the ball as if it was their last chance at winning. The student that had served looked down at her feet, her fists clenched. Some students noticed this and decided to speak up. "Instead of fighting with each other why don't we work together to win the game?" Some kids gave the student "quizzical looks" but gradually started working together to win points in the volleyball game.Working together, students called the ball when it was coming towards them and when they wanted to hit it. Rather than yelling at their peers when they made a mistake they told them how to fix it and encouraged them to try. They worked together the whole game and in the end even ended up winning the game by 12 points.
Later, when questioned some students claimed, "When we heard the boy yelling at the student we knew we had to stand up for what is right." Others said, "We were failing miserably and we had to do something." When they were all asked about how the game turned out they all agreed and said this, "Even though we all have our differences and don't all excel in the same area we shouldn't make fun of that, we should work together as a team and all help each other to succeed whenever we can." As a result, the team learned a lesson that day and from now on would always help each other and work together because, as previously stated, there's is no "I" in team.
By:V iolette Hauge
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There is no I in Team
Non-Fiction"Alone we can do so little, but together we can do so much." This news article is a good outlook on teamwork. Kids in a gym class learned an important lesson about teamwork one day.
