On campus, I am kind of known as a hard ass, not because I like torturing my students for the sake of being a hard ass, but because I was a PE teacher for 10 years and in my 10 years I saw a lot of poor teaching. I am not exempt. I admit, I got sucked into the occasional roll out the ball days. But looking back, by and large, I worked my butt off trying to provide my students with real life authentic experiences meant to inspire them to become physically active and to advocate for physical activity in the community and their families. Our profession is dying because too many teachers let the lessons they learned in undergrad fall by the way-side and slip into desperately poor practices in the gym (place--as in classroom). As long as the kids are "busy, happy, and good" (Placek, 1980), that is all administrators ever cared about and so that is what the profession did.
I'm not sure if anyone has noticed, but the times, they are a changing and we have to get on the bus or we will be the ones left behind. PE teachers are regularly asked to integrate Common Core into their lessons without sacrificing physical activity time, but even this isn't a new concept. When I got my first job back in 1997, one of the first questions I was asked in the interview was "How would I integrate reading and writing into my PE classes?" Do I think we should be teaching reading and writing? I don't think it is our job to stop teaching our content and teach English by any means, because we have too big of a job to do to take on that role, besides, we are not trained to do this. BUT why can't we support the classroom teachers? If we do it right, we won't be sacrificing physical activity, in fact, student learning may actually go up because students will be doing more than playing a game that they haven't adequately been taught to play. They will be analyzing their peers skill development, tacical decision-making, and using critical thinking skills when trying to figure out what the best strategy is take when they are in that triple threat position. The thing is, my students don't believe me that they will be held accountable for all of this. If teachers are implementing these strategies that can also be used as formative and/or summative assessments, physical educators will have the documentation needed to prove their students are learning because they have evidence through these assessments.
Today's pre-service teachers, on the other hand, truly believe they will be able to do what their teachers did and get tenure (if there is even any tenure by the time they get a job). With NY State's teacher evaluation protocol Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) I have seen and talked to many veteran teachers who are very skilled at their job struggle to reach the "effective" rating because they started teaching before all of this Common Core was even a thing. They were never trained in it, so as a result, they have their students sitting and reading books during class thinking this is what their principals want.
This summer I have had the opportunity to talk to administrators, principals and superintendents, and they are looking at this new generation of PE teachers to make a difference, not by doing what has always been done, but to be the leader, the new blood in the department that will train their new colleagues on how to integrate common core and how to regularly reflect on their lessons to continually improve. Just this week, on the first day of classes, I told my students this and they looked at me, like "really?" But on the bright side, for the first time since I have been teaching in higher ed, these students actually looked like they believed me! The tide might be turning, just a bit. My car salesman schtick might actually be convincing them to work hard and plan appropriately. Ok, this isn't too likely, but my Cause got a little help from a new alumni who sent me an email letting me know that she just got hired for her first teaching job, a mere 3-4 days before the start of the school year. Yes, her email said I helped her to become a better teacher (thank you for the compliment) and that she was able to blow them away in the interview but the thing that stood out was how impressed the committee was by the detail of her student teaching lesson plans and what we require of our students.
For the first time, I learned that my words have not been falling on deaf ears, that students do really listen and care. And no, I don't really believe I am a car salesman trying to sell a lemon. I truly believe in what I am doing. I wouldn't have gone back to school and moved my family all over the country working on my graduate degrees if I didn't believe in it. Anyway, her email brightened my day and I felt compelled to send it out to our majors, not to toot my own horn, but to show that while we professors do contribute to their overall development as teachers, it is ultimately their work ethic, professionalism, and desire to make a difference in the lives of their students that will ultimately get them the job they are looking for. And maybe, just maybe, we do know what we are talking about!
I do have to admit, it was nice being thanked for the job I am doing and it's also nice to know, that I won't have to don the requisite plaid suit and sleazy toothpick to make my point!
Actually, I pretty much noticed just now that this just may be my Jerry Maguire Moment, my
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