Let’s face it. We all have our own way to do things in our classes. For those of us that have been around for a while, we have methods that we are pretty comfortable with. Our kids seem to learn the material we present. They seem to be able to perform the skills we teach them. Why rock the boat? Why bother trying something new if what we already have is successful? My big thing is when something new comes along, does it fit what we are trying to do in the big picture. The last thing I ever want to do is to see something new, perhaps while attending a conference, immediately go back to school and plug it in the next day without first asking if it fits into what we already do. Just because an activity looks fun is never enough for me. If it’s fun and teaches something effectively, then I may have something there.

These are all good questions to be sure. I guess the answers depend on your comfort level, or on how much you are searching for the next great thing. I have to admit that for many years, I was one of those teachers who felt pretty strongly about what I taught and how I taught it. I felt that what I was doing helped my kids to understand and execute the skills that they needed to leave my building and then successfully build on those skills at our middle schools. My assessments showed me this assumption was true. Their skill level was where I thought I wanted it to be. There’s no need to change things up! Then my teaching partner went and threw a monkey wrench into my thinking. Kory McMahon is his name and he is a graduate class fiend! He is constantly taking graduate courses, always learning something new about our profession! If you have any questions about what I am about to describe to you, don’t hesitate to contact him.

He, like me was pretty confident in his methods. Then he came to me saying he was going to try an idea with video with our 3rd and 4th graders. As an elementary district staff, our three buildings had already developed some simple videos that showed our students what the correct form of the different skills we taught looked like. Showing kids these clips helped them see what they should want themselves to look like. They were pretty successful. But Kory wanted to take it one step further.

He did this in two ways. First he started to create tutorials on various skills that broke down each skill into manageable parts for the kids. He would show the video to the class when the skill was introduced. Then, if someone was struggling with a part of a skill, he would send the student back to view that portion of the tutorial again. Take a look here (the password is MottRoad). Today, we all individualize our instruction. The video piece allowed Kory to differentiate how he individualized his instruction. Listening to corrections is one thing; actually seeing it again is another all together!

“Where is your passion?” I recently asked this of a group of physical education undergraduates who were halfway through their student teaching. In putting together my presentation to them, I wanted something that would grab their attention right away and get them thinking about their chosen profession. I think this question did the trick.

When I asked for their answers, I got many of the response I anticipated. Most of them said something along the lines of “physical activity,” or “physical fitness,” or even “teaching kids about sports and fitness.” But then one of these students gave me the answer I was hoping for. His answer was “to teach kids.” When I pressed him to tell me more, low I thought he would say something PE related. I was both surprised and impressed when he answered by saying “anything!” That was the answer I was hoping for and what I wanted to get all of the students to think about.

You see I believe that there is a big difference between our passion and our expertise. Our passion needs to be kids. First and foremost our main focus should be on the kids we are fortunate enough to see daily (even the ones that seem to go the extra mile to make our jobs difficult). We are there to create an environment where our students can thrive. As basic as that sounds I believe this should be our main focus.