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PREPARING
FOR THE NEW YEAR
 I
trust that you are reading this newsletter
at home while you are relaxing and enjoying
your well-deserved vacation! This month’s
article on preparing for the new
school year features contributions
from two teachers who will be new to
my district this fall. Nicole
Corcoran will be joining us
from graduate school, and this will
be her first teaching assignment. Jay
Hays will be joining us from
another district. His position at his
former district was cut through budget
constraints. Both Nicole and Jay share
what they are doing to prepare for life
in a new district. I will also share
an idea on program advocacy to prepare
for a school year where the budget process
may be even more difficult than it was
this year.
On another
note, I want to inform you that this
will be my last article as an editor
for pelinks4u. I wish you all
the best in your future endeavors!
PREPARING
FOR A 1ST POSITION
by Nicole Corcoran (Wellwood
Middle School)
Even though
the 2009-2010 school year has just ended,
I am already excited to start the 2010-2011
school year! Many of you may be saying,
“Enjoy your summer while it’s
here!” However, as a brand new
teacher moving to a school district
approximately 200 miles away from home
is truly exciting for me! Preparing
for the 2010-2011 year a little early,
anyone in my position would probably
be doing the same things - communicating
with other teachers in the district,
searching for a place to live, learning
the curriculum and school policies,
and naturally wondering about her students!
Though the
process of preparing for the upcoming
school year has just begun, I am already
seeing the immense help and generosity
the personnel in my school district
are offering to me! As a new physical
education teacher with limited experience,
it is great to know that other physical
education teachers are offering suggestions
on areas to look for apartments, as
well as offering ways to get involved
within the educational community. It
truly makes me feel accepted already!
As for preparing
for the school year alone, I am really
just going day by day and asking other
teachers and administration questions
as questions come up. I think that communication
is going to be the key to a smooth transition
for me from graduate student to physical
education teacher. I look forward to
being able to share my knowledge and
resources with my colleagues, at the
same time learning as much as I can
from them as well! As nerve racking
as it may be to pick up and move, while
trying to concentrate on being a great
teacher, I know that once I meet my
students and colleagues, all of those
feelings and butterflies will go away!
PREPARING
FOR A 1ST POSITION
by Jay Hays (Fayetteville-Manlius
High School)
Getting prepared
to teach in a new school is a very exciting
and nerve-racking event in a teacher’s
life. Wondering if the new staff is
going to like you and/or how you teach
can weigh on a new teacher’s nerves.
For me, I am trying to prepare by getting
to know the curriculum as best I can.
Meeting with the curriculum coordinator
and touching base with other teachers
in the district helps to get comfortable
with what is going on. I also plan on
visiting the gyms and trying to get
comfortable being in them. I think that
it is important to really talk with
the current teachers to get an idea
of routines and how the year is going
to flow. Having more knowledge about
the kids, staff, and administration
can only help you when preparing to
teach in a new building.
For me, it
is a matter of remaining positive and
open to the change that is coming in
my teaching career and being excited
to embrace it. In these tough economic
times, I feel very fortunate to have
a job, and I plan to go in with unbridled
enthusiasm.
PREPARING
FOR A NEW SCHOOL YEAR TO HELP JUSTIFY
YOUR PROGRAM
by Ed
Kupiec
As we are
all aware, this year was incredibly
difficult for schools and budgets, and
next year will likely be even more challenging.
With the emphasis on “academic”
achievement and the Race to the Top
legislation, physical education may
be viewed as a luxury by some misinformed
or unaware administrators. This is unfortunate,
as the research is clear that the opposite
is true; quality physical education
is essential to students maximizing
their potential in the classroom. Being
proactive is the best approach to defending
your program from budget cuts, and it
would be prudent to spend some time
before the school year starts planning
for how to advocate and spotlight your
programs as essential to student’s
overall achievement.
I will not
use this space to suggest that physical
education is the solution to childhood
obesity. Dr. Jefferies has already written
on this site about why that is a slippery
slope to navigate. Instead, I would
suggest that in your planning, you focus
on deliberately making references to
the link between physical education
and academic achievement.
I’m
sure you are aware that NASPE has released
a pamphlet highlighting physical activity
through First Lady Michelle Obama’s
Let’s Move Campaign. Dr. John
Ratey’s book Spark, as well as
a multitude of other research, highlights
the positive effect that exercise has
on brain development and efficiency.
Other studies have also found positive
correlations between increased physical
education time and academic achievement.
Links to more information can be found
on my colleague Tom
Winiecki’s website. You can
use this information to promote yourself
to parents and your district, in order
to demonstrate how quality physical
education, besides helping students
achieve the knowledge, skills, and value
to be physically active for a lifetime,
can be an effective partner in helping
to raise student’s cognitive achievement.
Plan to relay
this information to parents not just
at open houses, but also through regular
“family nights,” where students
invite their parents to attend. This
will help you enlist parents as supporters
for your program. Arrange meetings with
administration to sell your program
for its inherent benefits, as well as
to highlight its importance to the school
effort to maximize student potential.
Give them the research. Every chance
you get in a lesson, mention how the
lesson is helping them become more physically
educated. Then explain how it is also
helping put them in the best position
to learn more in the classroom. Deliberately
design these teachable moments as part
of your lessons as you prepare this
summer.
One note
of caution: While the research is positive,
we need to make sure to educate parents
and administrators that physical education
and physical activity are not synonymous.
Physical activity is part of physical
education, but there are important elements
needed to ensure the education piece.
Administrators and parents need to be
made aware that students need to be
taught how to move correctly, how to
perform manipulative skills, the rules
and conventions of sports and lifetime
physical activities, how to take care
of their bodies and design appropriate
fitness plans, how to evaluate community
resources, etc… Otherwise, students
could have daily recess replace physical
education, instead of supplementing
it. Without physical education, how
will students maximize their potential
and then be able to care for the body
that has done so well academically?
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