Reflections on 37 Great Years of Physical Education Teaching

I have decided to finally retire after a 37-year career teaching elementary physical education. There, I’ve said it! Wow, that feels good.

I’ve seen more than my share of things come and go over that time. I’ve learned a lot about myself and my students as well. There will be plenty that I will miss, as well as some things that I won’t miss at all.

I can remember first playing music in my classes on actual 33rpm albums! I can remember the kids bringing in their favorite records to play for class. I can also remember thinking “Where can I put the record player so it is less likely to get hit by flying objects?” When cassette tapes came along, my problem was solved! Cueing up the tape between classes was a bit of a hassle, but hey, it is what it is. You do what you have to do, right? Who would have thought that later I’d have this thing called an iPod that could store and play any song with just a click from a remote that I can even use from the hallway?

I can remember being taught in college how to be good at a whole slew of sport skills. But looking back on it, I was never really taught how to teach skill progressions to different ages of students. That is with one exception. I took a beginning level gymnastics class from Dr. Eric Malmberg at SUNY Cortland back in either 1979, or 1980 (boy that sounds like a very long time ago), and his entire focus was not on me learning gymnastics skills, but on learning the skills I needed to teach the lead-ups to various gymnastics skills to different aged kids. Suddenly, the light went on for me and everything from that point forward was about how I could better reach my future students with my curriculum.

I remember, I think it was in my first year, my students complaining how they used to be taught dance and hating having to hold a girl’s, or a boy’s hand for square dancing. They simply hated it! I remember having to do the same thing when I was in elementary school too. Why would I do that to them again? So, I came up with different activities that would still teach rhythms without using something that the kids’ hated and wouldn’t do on their own anyway.

I remember using things like lummi sticks, jump ropes, and balls to teach things rhythmically. We even did a silly routine to Macho Manby the Village People. Remember, this was the early 80’s. On the last day of that unit, while we were lining up to leave, a student asked me when we were going to “do dance.” I told her, “Marcy, we just finished.” You should have seen her face light up. She couldn’t believe that something that she hated so much was now something that she had so much fun with. Little Marcy has since grown up and become a teacher in my district. We still enjoy sharing this story to this day.

I’ve learned that I have the best job in the world. I’ve heard that from many fellow physical educators a lot over the years and today I can truly say the same thing. To further make this point, let me share a conversation I recently had with a parent. We play a fundraising basketball game every year with our local fire department. I got talking with one of our parents about my retirement one night when we were preparing for this game. He asked me if I felt I’d ever worked a day.  I replied that I’d had some tough days, but most were great. He said that wasn’t what he asked. So, I told him “No, I hadn’t worked a day since I started.” I’ve taught all of his kids over the years and he said that it showed. He could tell by how his kids talked about my class that I must really enjoy what I do. That comment really made me feel great: The idea that people outside of my school see how much I enjoy doing what I do! We both then went on to say how we felt sorry for all of those people that didn’t love what they did for a living.

I’ve learned that all kids want to learn, no matter how hard some may try to cover that up. It just fell on me to figure out what that key was to open up each of my students. It’s out there, I just needed to find it. I’m sure that I’ve done a better job of finding that key with some kids than with others, but looking back now, I can say that I did my level best with all of them. I can only hope that they feel the same way.

I’ve had some pretty good advice throughout my career. A few thoughts still resonate with me. The first is something that I heard years ago at a local conference. There was a middle school PE teacher presenting and he began by saying he wanted to be the topic of conversation at the dinner table EVERY NIGHT! He wanted to present his material in such a way that his students couldn’t wait to get home and tell they parents what they did in his class that day. What a great way of looking at things! I couldn’t tell you a thing about what he presented beyond that initial statement. All I could think was, how could I use that philosophy with my teaching? How could I teach what my kids needed to learn, while getting them excited about it at the same time? I’d like to think I’ve done that.

I’ve had plenty of parents tell me what their kids say about my classes and want to ask more about things like the monkey that lives in the gym, or squishing pizzas to do a backward roll, or how does a giraffe help their child shoot a basketball. Measuring success by beating their best score, replaced having more points at the end of a game a long time ago with me. My students have learned that I am there to help them get better and not there just to find mistakes. I will help them find those mistakes, but we will work together to use those mistakes to eventually get better. Before the digital age of today, it was just me telling them how to improve. Now they can see a mistake themselves on an iPad and they get excited to show me a video of them doing it again correctly.

Having been teaching for 37 years, I have had the kids of former students many times now. More than a few times I’ve heard kids tell their friends that their mom had me as a teacher. I tried not to let that make me feel too old. Going back to being the topic of conversation at dinner every night, I often wonder what my current students hear at home about me from a parent that I taught years ago. What preconceptions are they bringing to my classes? Did I treat their mom or dad fairly when I had them as a student? Are they coming in afraid, or eager? I hope it’s the latter.

To take this idea a bit farther, here’s another story. My wife is a 4^thgrade teacher in another district. She had a speaker at her opening day this year who spoke to something that stuck with both of us. The speaker’s point was that no matter how long you’ve been teaching, whether you were a rookie right out of school or a 30+ year vet, your legacy started yesterday! Don’t wait until the end of your career to think about your legacy. Work on it each and every day. Again, I hope that my legacy, what my former students who are now parents of my current students say about me and my program is positive.  I hope that they think that their kids are in a good place with me. That they will learn to enjoy learning and that I’m there to help them with that process. Hopefully, sometime in the future, my current students will send their kids to school with a positive attitude toward physical education. That’s my idea of a good legacy.

Another bit of advice I got, came when I would sit in on interviews for physical education positions in my district. The administrator in charge of the interviews would tell us that he was not looking for the smartest candidate. He wanted the person with their passion in the right place. When he would ask a candidate what their passion was, if their answer was something like fitness, or teaching skills, or heaven forbid, athletics, they went to the bottom of the pile. If they answered that their passion was teaching kids, they went to the top of the list. His point was that anyone can learn the nuts and bolts of teaching any subject. There were “book smart” people everywhere and he wasn’t at all interested in them. He just wanted people whose passion was the kids and whose expertise was physical education. If it wasn’t in that order they were not considered.

I always thought I was like that but hearing it in the context of a job interview reinforced it for me. If I want to be as good as I think I am or want to become, then I needed to adopt that way of thinking tomorrow. Whenever I get the chance to talk to future professionals, I try to drive this point home with them. And ever since that day in those interviews, when a child shows the smallest improvement, I’m all over it. My kids know that if they work to improve I will be there when it happens. Even if I don’t see it, I want them to come right over and tell me. I will often tell students that if they get to a certain point, get so many jumps in a row, or use the right footwork in a skill, or do something else a certain number of times, to find me and tell me. When they do, it’s a loud “YES!” from me and a big hi-5.

This behavior was further cemented for me by a local Tae Kwon Do instructor. He comes into our building each spring to introduce our kids to his activity. A few of my kids have had him for lessons at his studio, but for most of my kids this is brand new to them. I have to say that from the moment he walks into the gym, he has the kids’ utmost attention. He is so good at finding the smallest thing in a child and making it a positive. I can still remember his first visit and how he made a point of praising how straight a student was sitting and then used him to demonstrate something. Showing respect that way is important to him and deserves to be rewarded. Within minutes, everyone was sitting a straight as a pin. Also, his smile was contagious and the kids busted a gut to get that smile from him. He wasn’t shy about using his smile either. After he teaches all of our kids over a 2-day period, he then offers six free after school classes for anyone interested. Of all the after-school activities offered in our building each year, his, by far and away, always gets the most kids to come out.

The motivation and enthusiasm that I learned from this Tae Kwon Do instructor was further instilled in me by some advice Artie Kamiya shared. I had the pleasure of meeting Artie during a session at the St. Louis AAHPERD Convention in 2014. I met a lot of terrific people there. I finally got to meet Steve Jefferies whose publication I’ve contributed to for years, as well as Mark Manross with PE Central. We had some great conversations at this convention, but what I especially took from Artie will last a lifetime. I don’t remember the main topic he spoke about, and Artie, if you read this I’m sorry about that. But I will always remember how he ended the session. He said to “smile with your eyes.” Talk about a eureka moment. Smile with your eyes. That’s fantastic advice for everyone who teaches!

Since that day, I try to make my interactions with my kids reflect this whenever I can. Someone once said that the eyes are the gateway to the soul. Well, what better way is there to let a child in my class know that I’m there for them than to smile with my eyes?

I’ve seen things come and go. When I first was hired, I believed I was a PE teacher, not a classroom teacher and that the two shall never mix. I’ve felt the push to integrate more academic content into our lessons. I’ve seen physical activity and fitness start to appear into classrooms with things like brain breaks. One year, Paul Zientarski from Naperville, Illinois and Dr. John Ratey the author of SPARK were going to speak locally. I got our staff and some district administrators to attend. I’d like to think that session opened some eyes.

The link on my web site at school that had a lot of the research connecting exercise and brain function always got the most hits each month. Some administrators and teachers embraced it fully, while some did with qualifications. I got all three of our district’s elementary schools to start their day with a morning walk through their buildings to jump start student and teacher brains for the day. It’s evolved to include things like GoNoodle (www.gonoodle.com). We were fully supported by our administration; that is until state testing week. Then, the same principals who said that this walk was important to prepare the kids’ brains would cancel the same walk for testing week, because they didn’t want to get the kids too revved up. Okay, I guess there is still work to do here…

All in all, it’s been a great 37-year ride! I’d like to think that I’ve accomplished a few things and made a positive impact on my kids. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my life. My only hope now is that whoever takes over for me takes what I’ve built and runs with it!  I may leave them an envelope in their desk for them to find next fall just before school starts up again, letting them know the responsibility they have to their future students and what a positive impact they can have on children’s lives. I’ll tell them that those nail holes in the wall from the awards I’ve been fortunate to get over the years are motivation for them to use for the awards and accolade that they will get over their career. Hopefully, they’ll need to make a few more holes in the wall. If they are as fortunate as me, that career may even last 37-magical years. It’s been a great journey!

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(Congratulations Tom on your amazing physical education teaching career! Tom has regularly shared teaching tips based on his many years of elementary teaching experience at Mott Road Elementary School, in Fayetteville, NY. Thanks Tom, we wish you good health and great new adventures ~ PHE America)