Greetings PE Nation! Ever wondered how to transform your PE teaching skills and start the school year off with a bang? Tune into this episode where I share insights from my book "The Teacher, the Chef, and the Hockey Player" and its upcoming sequel. You'll discover five essential steps for becoming a top-notch PE teacher, starting with the magic of implementing effective classroom systems. Learn how simple routines, like managing how students enter the class and handle basics like bathroom breaks, can elevate your teaching game. Inspired by the TV show "The Bear," we also highlight the principle of "less is more" to help you cut through the clutter and focus on what truly matters. We'll delve deeper into the value of simplicity in teaching and the courage to step outside your comfort zone. By minimizing unnecessary equipment and simplifying rules, you can make learning more accessible and engaging for your students. Hear personal anecdotes about taking risks and being innovative, inspired by trailblazers across various industries. Don't forget to leave a review if you enjoyed the episode—your feedback is vital as we strive to push our profession forward.
Take care, Dave
Join my mailing list and receive Video #1 in my Beginning Teacher Series for FREE! Click HERE!
Greetings PE Nation! Ever wondered how to transform your PE teaching skills and start the school year off with a bang? Tune into this episode where I share insights from my book "The Teacher, the Chef, and the Hockey Player" and its upcoming sequel. You'll discover five essential steps for becoming a top-notch PE teacher, starting with the magic of implementing effective classroom systems. Learn how simple routines, like managing how students enter the class and handle basics like bathroom breaks, can elevate your teaching game. Inspired by the TV show "The Bear," we also highlight the principle of "less is more" to help you cut through the clutter and focus on what truly matters. We'll delve deeper into the value of simplicity in teaching and the courage to step outside your comfort zone. By minimizing unnecessary equipment and simplifying rules, you can make learning more accessible and engaging for your students. Hear personal anecdotes about taking risks and being innovative, inspired by trailblazers across various industries. Don't forget to leave a review if you enjoyed the episode—your feedback is vital as we strive to push our profession forward.
Take care, Dave
Join my mailing list and receive Video #1 in my Beginning Teacher Series for FREE! Click HERE!
Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast. My name is Dave and today I want to talk about five steps to becoming a great PE teacher and how you can accomplish that, and it's something I've been striving for for my whole career. So, without further ado, here we go. Welcome in everyone. I'm so glad you're here today. So, like I said, I want to give you five things to think about for this upcoming school year about how you can become a better, if not a great, pe teacher.
Speaker 1:
Now, some of these things are in my book the Teacher, the Chef and the Hockey Player, and some are going to be in my sequel to that, which should be out sometime next year. But in general, I want to put together five things that could just take your craft to the next level, and I know there's many things, but these are the five things I've been thinking about. So hopefully these will help you in your teaching career and, if you're on summer break, like I, am things to think about for this coming school year. So let's make this a boomer. So number one here we go. All right. Number one is from my first book. It is put systems into place, or put systems in place so you can't have an effective PE program without systems, and they don't have to be perfect, they can be evolving, but you have to have something. You can't just have mass chaos. So these are some things I think about every school year and what I want to get out of my students and how we can be more effective as a class or as a grade level, coming in and leaving and all sorts of things.
Speaker 1:
So, first of all, how they come in is very important to me. Now I have anywhere between three and five classes at a time, so I'd like them to come in and sit down on a dot, and I know other people have them come in and just do a lap right away or go, you know, move right away, which is awesome. I think that's great for one class, for three to five classes at a time, you know I like them coming in, getting to a dot, sitting down and just being ready to go. Now I also have them sit crisscross applesauce and sitting up straight. It doesn't have to be perfect, I'm not a dictator or anything, but I want them to make sure they are attentive and listening and just ready to go and not just all over the place when they get to fifth grade, I give a little more leeway on how they sit. I'm not as strict on that, I guess, and it's only for a few minutes. It's only coming in, maybe a short talk and then just standing up and moving with an exercise, some kind of music montage or anything like that that I make. So that is how they come in Usually. That's how we start every class. They come in, they sit for 30 seconds or to a minute until everybody gets there. If a class is late, I start without them. I don't just have them sit for five minutes. You know I have things to do. You know every second counts, as they say, and I got to maximize my time. So the first five minutes or so they come in, they sit down and then they get up within that first minute, do a song and then we're ready to go to our stations.
Speaker 1:
Other things to think about are if they want to go to the bathroom, what do they do? Is there a signal? Do they just go? If the music is on, can they go. If it's off, can they go? When can they go to the bathroom and how? What's the signal? You know what's the signal for water, or how do they line up, what do they do?
Speaker 1:
I actually changed this past year where they put their water bottles. I used to have them put them right in front of them as they're sitting and then they go if they leave for their stations. But then I noticed the kids were flipping the water bottles and just playing with them and not always paying attention. So I have them put their water bottles in a hoop and then they go to their dots and then if they leave, they take them with them. If they stay, they pretty much stay there and they can get them when needed. So these are all things to think about. Just having a system. You know, again, how they get from place to place, how they get water, how they get to go to the bathroom. You know what are they, you know what are they doing by the minute. Basically, and I'd say, have that pretty consistent. You don't want to have kids not knowing what to do or where to go or just being confused with things. Get a habit, get procedures going so they know and they're not surprised. So that is number one put systems in place. Number two less is more, and what I mean by that is subtract.
Speaker 1:
One of our favorite shows is the Bear. If anyone watches the Bear on Hulu and in season three, the mean chef, he wrote to the main chef if he wants to get better. He wrote the word subtract and that really hit me. I was like, wow, that makes sense as a matter of fact, when I said every second counts. That's definitely a theme of that show. So definitely watch the Bear Not that I'm affiliated with it or anything, but the Bear is awesome. And so going back to less is more.
Speaker 1:
I think simplifying things is better. So going back to less is more, I think simplifying things is better. I think when we make things too technical for the students, they get lost. I'd say keep the rules three steps at the most until you practice something and they can see it or rehearse it. So at the most I'd say two to three tasks at a time. Some students require less than that. It's a one-step process and definitely kindergarten, very, very simple. But that also means talking less and that's hard for me. I talk way too much, as you can tell, on this thing. I think I talk too much and I need to listen more as far as giving them a question, letting them think about it, letting them play and figure out the problem Well, actually figure out the solution to the problem and things like that Just subtract a lot of things, subtract equipment.
Speaker 1:
This is something I've just been thinking about this past week. I don't need the shiny objects, I don't need the greatest things out there. I need enough equipment for each student to have enough objects. I don't want one kid to share or one ball shared among 10 kids. You know, I want one-on-one, one ball per student, or one ball per every student or every two students. I want to make sure that I have the basics and I can add my twists to it. I want to put kids in small teams, small-sided games, and I want to be able to vary the objects, but I want to have lots of options. So these are things I've just been thinking about. I don't need the shiny stuff. I don't need the fancy stuff. I need to simplify and make sure it's more meaningful and it's not as oh, it's the coolest thing going on right now. It's the viral game with very little substance, the thing that's all over Twitter. It might be a good game, but it doesn't mean it's a great game. I just want to make sure I'm doing the best for my students and I think, as a rule, less is more.
Speaker 1:
Number three is take risks. Now, this is also my book that I'm writing. Currently. There's a lot of risk takers in history, in the music industry, in the sport industry, in any industry, you know. Just innovating, making new uh things, making new technology, making anything. You need to take risks and, as my favorite author, robin Sharma, says no ask, no get. If you don't ask for something, there's no way you're going to get it. There's no way you're going to get to yes if you can't even ask. And that's something I try to live my life by with my principal or my administration. I just got a new principal. I honestly, by the time you hear this, it won't be the same, but I just met her today. We have a very new principal. I'm not kidding you. I met her this morning. She's very nice, but you know, I need to be able to come to her eventually and ask her. For you know, certain things I don't know new equipment or a new idea I have that requires me taking over the cafeteria for a little bit. Or new idea I have that requires me taking over the cafeteria for a little bit. Or, you know, if I want to write a grant, which I do almost every year.
Speaker 1:
I've been wanting to do archery for years now and my principals usually say no because it's too dangerous. And I get that. I've also seen people do archery in theirs and it looks great and it's even as a club. I'd love to do archery but you know, I need to be able to take that risk and ask. And you know there's other things as well. I want to get skateboards going, you know, but we have cement so I don't want kids getting their arms broken. But it's something I need to ask and really take a risk.
Speaker 1:
You know I want you to look around and this is what I try to do. I try to create new things by inspirations all around me. Put new spins on different games. Just look for different fields, to find things for your PE program. You know, watch documentaries, watch sometimes it's just game shows to find cool new games. But you can make it your own. So take chances, take risks. My favorite risk-taking adventure not really, but risk-taking moments at least I've taken a lot of risks, but one of my favorites I've said before on the podcast, but maybe you haven't heard this. I'll try to make it brief.
Speaker 1:
So my principal that hired me, my first PE job. He hired me. That hired me my first PE job. He hired me and I'll always be thankful to him. He well, he had cancer and his cancer came back and he had to resign and, as he was, we all said goodbye to him as a staff in the media center.
Speaker 1:
But a couple of weeks later I was walking through the office area and I saw that he was in his office with his wife and other administration, people from my school and whatnot, and I walked by and I was like, oh man, I want to say something to him, I want to say hi to him. Who knows if I'll ever see him again, I'm not sure. And I just wanted to say hi to him and I didn't because I was like kind of paralyzed by oh, what if I get in trouble, what if he's meeting with important people and they don't want me to interrupt them, you know. So I walked out of the, I guess, the office area into the main hallway and I just basically said to myself you know, f it, screw it, I'm turning around. And I went around, I turned around and went to his office and I'm just like I'm so sorry, you know. I just want to say hi. And he was like no, no, no, come on in, come on in. And I got to meet his wife and you know we had a nice little conversation. It was awesome the conversation we had. It wasn't real long, but it was awesome. And unfortunately that was the last time I ever spoke to him because he passed away probably a month or two later, and I'm just really glad I did that. That was a risk that I took, that I'm not a super outgoing person and I'm glad I did it, because I would have regretted that the rest of my life. So that was the quick version of the story. That was basically it, but it was just an impact that that story had on me. Like, even now, this is geez, I don't even know. This is 10 years later at least, actually a little more even that this happened. It might have been 12 years later or 12 years ago. So anyways, yeah, let's do it, let's take risks.
Speaker 1:
Number four is probably my favorite one. I think today it's care more about the students than the standards. Now, I'm not a person that just does whatever. I'm not a teacher be growing in their skills. I want to see them just get better and better each day, and that is definitely my objective. However, it's very, very rare that you will teach an Olympic athlete in your teaching career, or even a pro athlete at any level. It's pretty rare it happens, but it's very, very rare.
Speaker 1:
So I I want to make sure I'm molding good people, not just athletes. You know, if they don't know the skeletal system, you know what I mean 10 years from now. I think it's okay. I mean it's important, but I think it's more important to mold good people and to get them to understand teamwork and sportsmanship and winning and losing with grace and talking to other students and being in a group and working well together and just becoming a good person. And I've said this to my students many, many times I'd rather you be a good student than a great athlete. I'd rather you be good at a lot of things. Of course, I love that. I love the confident and competent in many areas. That's physical literacy, again, that's the basic premise of it. But I want them to be good people and if they can't kick a ball yet, that's okay. But are they being kind? Are they being nice to others? Are they including others? Are they talking and communicating? Are they, you know these kind of things are more important to me. So you know that's my take on it Again, students over standards is what it should be called.
Speaker 1:
So let's call it that Students over standards. All right. The final one today is it's real simple have fun. Pe is fun. The kids enjoy it for the most part. I know there's a few outliers or some people, some students that would rather be in art or music or STEM or whatnot, but all students can have fun and most students do.
Speaker 1:
I was actually bummed out because the last day of school, the very last day of school this past school year, some of my fifth graders they really wanted to have PE, like really badly, and they had music or art. And there's nothing wrong with music or art and they're very good teachers at my school as well but they want to be outside, they want to play, they wanted to get a little free time on the last week of school and you know I was kind of bummed. I'm like man, I wish I can get them all out there, but I don't think the teachers the other teachers would be very happy with me. But this is usually the favorite part of the day is going to PE. You know we're outside. Well, I'm outside, you know. But even if you're inside, it doesn't matter where you are. You're teaching PE.
Speaker 1:
I'm wearing shorts and a dry fit shirt. I'm wearing sneakers to work. Who else can do that? It's not everybody. I know that. I'm singing, I'm dancing, I'm exercising with them. I'm playing games that I used to play when I was a kid, or modified games. I'm making new games. I'm creating new games and I love it. We're impacting lives with the whole school. I get to see the whole school, except for pre-K, which is only like 10 kids. I get to see everybody in the whole school. I get to see a thousand kids. I'm impacting lives and I'm planting seeds which you'll never know. You'll never know.
Speaker 1:
I had this student. He drove me crazy for three years. I just finished my third year at the school. He was a third grader when I started there and I do like him and I did like him, but he drove me kind of crazy. I'm not gonna lie. And the last day of school he was like hugging on me, saying he's gonna miss me and everything. I'm like oh man, yeah, I'm gonna miss you too. You know you're planting these seeds. You never know what's going to happen with these students, hopefully in a positive way.
Speaker 1:
But you know, enjoy it, have fun. That's the simple one. Just be outside or inside or wherever you are, just enjoy your career, enjoy your time, enjoy what you do for a living. You're not wearing a suit and tied to work. You're playing with kids. Enjoy it.
Speaker 1:
And now it is time for your Cowbell Tip of the Day. All right, my friends, your tip of the day is think about what you need for the school year coming up. I know not everyone's on summer break like I am, but a lot of you are. Think about these things that I've talked about today. Think about other things that you need to add to your program or take away. In the case of subtraction, or less is more. Don't get into the school year and not know what you're doing. Plan ahead. Enjoy your summer, by the way, enjoy your summer or your time off, but plan ahead. Put the work in. Don't go in without you know, just blindly. Go into school with a plan and know where you're headed this coming year and put these practices into place. Wow, there's a lot of P words there, a lot of alliteration. Right, my wife would be proud of me for that one Alliteration put practices into place. I love it. So that is your cowbell tip of the day.
Speaker 1:
Thank you everyone for tuning in today. Pe Nation, you are awesome. Please leave a review, hopefully a good one, if this made you think, laugh, or just come up with something new. Hopefully this inspired you to take action. So the action I have for you is please click on the link in the episode notes and give me a hopefully a good review. It won't take long. I appreciate that and I appreciate all of you. Take care and have a great week weekend, whenever you're listening to this, and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.
