Back to the Future and Beyond

Writing this essay took me back in time. It involved a jump-around process blending my thoughts on past events and imagining physical education’s future. It all began with a comment from my wife who at the time was an elementary and high school principal. It was the best of both worlds. While I was teaching I was hearing an administrator’s perspective as each year progressed. But one day she commented that PE was on the wrong track. This got my attention. What did she mean? She explained, “I want to know the numbers!” In other words, what were my measurements of success? Where was the evidence? How did I know that what I was doing was having any impact on the well-being of my students after graduating from high school? It’s these questions that continue to haunt our profession today.

In recent years, the value and quality of physical education has advanced as a result of the brain research findings and technological advances. Many of our colleagues are using this information and equipment to support their teaching. But as we all know, there are still far too many physical educators who either don’t care or are uninformed. Not surprisingly, the result is that physical education too frequently gets a bad rap from outsiders. Something is clearly missing. What can be done? To me, one key solution is to improve advocacy and to increase the sharing of information.

It all starts with professional preparation and the college experience of future teachers. I can remember that one of the classes I was required to take explained how to integrate PE with the so-called core subjects. At that time this was an idea bordering on heresy! But to make a long story short, it ended up saving my job and started a new era of respect for PE in my school that continued for the 36 years of my public school teaching career.

In the 1990s, a bright new light guided my professional development with the emergence of the Internet and the creation of what came to be known as “pe-digest.” Online, I met the best of the best among PE teachers. Around the same time, conversations started about NEW PE. An incredible number of new ideas were shared and participants in this group helped to change conventional thinking about content and the best way to teach physical education. Since then PE Central, pelinks4u, PE-1, and many other online resources have evolved to support quality physical education teaching. Amazingly however, despite the availability of conventions, conferences, webinars, Facebook, and other informational opportunities, it’s noticeable that there are still many requests for assistance from both veteran and novice teachers. Why is this?

It seems to me that too few of today’s teachers are engaging in opportunities to share their experiences or ask questions as used to occur when pe-digest was flourishing. Too few of them are members of their state professional association or SHAPE America and are unaware of Exchange and other information sharing resources. PE teachers face so many issues in public education today with the testing pressure-push and sorting out where PE fits in the mix. If you can believe it, even within our profession there continues to be a dodgeball debate. I truly thought that topic had been resolved! Sadly, we still suffer hugely from the memories of those who remember us as roll-out-the-ballers and game organizers! And of course the media continues to enjoy showing those ‘gym’ teacher put-downs in movies that portray us as not serving any sort of value in public education. But in honestly some of this is probably deserved. We still have teaching colleagues who have fallen between the cracks and their lackluster performance continues to make life much harder for today’s exemplary professionals who routinely perform at an exceptionally high level.

Getting Connected

Here are just a few ideas of ways that you can better connect with your students, your school and local community, and your teaching colleagues locally and nationwide. Where appropriate, I have also linked to some additional online resources that you may find helpful.

• Make a fitness calendar each month for students to take home
• Share ideas or seek out teachers for help both in and near-by schools
• Inform all staff members of information, web sites and social media outlets
• Take time to engage in the National Institute, conventions and conferences
• Be aware of Spark, Twitter, Facebook and Skype
• Develop pod casts and social media for sharing ideas
• Technology – www.thepegeek.com
• Explore new trends in PE
• Make a PE web site for your school
• Address the Core standards and comply in professional excellence
• Make a GAME PLAN

Tips For The New School Year

1. Advocate. This may seem to be overused, but if you can win over the teachers, administration, parents, other teachers, community and state representatives it will prove to be road less traveled and the “Y’ in the road is SUCCESS.
2. Visualize. Close your eyes before each class. Envision the layout. Look for safety concerns. Perceive how things should be, and then make a plan if something doesn’t work.
3. Take enrichment classes that combine PE and other subject areas.
4. Find out all aspects of how to use technology
5. Always plan ahead for the unexpected
6. Try to remember the names of the students- be vigilant on what they wear( same on PE day) or any game-type activity that uses names
7. Make a recipe for success
8. Teaching and survival tips
9. Don’t get caught in the Hall of Shame- embarrass students, elimination activities, dangerous injury or harm to students, low participation and lack of teaching motor skills and lifetime activity
10. Saving P.E.

And Finally

If you are looking for some great professional development for health and physical education check out the SHAPE America Podcast. It’s great source for professional development. You can listen on your computer, on your ride to work, at home, or while exercising. Check it out and every month you will hear multiple episodes containing awesome information to implement into your classroom or teaching practice from teachers of the year. Listen on your computer.