Swapping your sweatbands for a suit and tie, your whistle for a pen, and your dodgeball for seating plans? I hadn’t considered the transition away from full-time PE teaching until it happened! 

First, let’s address the elephant in the sports hall: saying goodbye to those iconic PE teacher outfits. No more rockin’ your polo shirt and tracksuit combo; now, I must embrace the business casual world. I should have saved up for the cost of an entirely new wardrobe, and I had no idea how much thought has to go into what your new ‘teacher’ look would be. Say hello to collared shirts and chinos that don’t have an elastic waistband. And don’t even get me started on the shoes! Goodbye, trusty old trainers; hello, uncomfortable dress shoes you swear were designed by medieval torturers.

But the real challenge begins when you have to adapt your teaching style from getting kids to throw and catch to, well, whatever your new job entails. Suddenly, instead of yelling, “Come on, you can do it!” during a relay race, you’re whispering, “Please, let’s all focus on the task at hand”. It’s like going from coaching a rowdy team of athletes to herding a group of caffeinated cats.

But hey, it’s not all doom and gloom! Transitioning to a new job within the school opens up a new world of exploration. No longer confined to the sweaty embrace of the gym, you now have the thrilling opportunity to venture into the uncharted territories of classrooms, hallways, and maybe even the mysterious faculty lounge. I’ve never felt so much a part of a school. It makes you realise how siloed we are within our PE bubble and how this shouldn’t be the case.

And let’s not forget the exciting prospect of acquiring a whole new set of skills! Sure, you might not be able to bench press as much paperwork as you used to bench press dumbbells, but mastering the art of keeping a lesson on track and managing your classroom arrangements between Year 7 and Year 12 lessons. Who needs push-ups when you can do push-ins of chairs?

I swapped out of full-time PE this year, having spent the last 20 on sports fields and in gymnasiums. It was the right move at the right time and one that many of us will make at some stage in our PE careers, but I had never really spent any time thinking about just how different it would make teaching feel. We are often led to believe that ‘teaching is teaching’ and that we all do the same fundamental job, but in the last nine months, I’ve realised that this isn’t the case at all. What we do in PE is unique, memorable, and way better than anything else you can do in a school! I don’t regret moving from PE, but I will always tell PE teachers to hang on there for as long as possible because now I know, without a doubt, that really is the best job in the world.

This microblog post was a featured post in #slowchathealth’s #microblogmonth event. You can search for all of the featured posts here. Please do follow each of the outstanding contributors on social media (including Phil Mathe, the author of this post) and consider writing a microblog post of your own to be shared with the global audience of slowchathealth.com

Pair this post with the following:

Best Job in the World by Nick Russo

Happiness Factories by Phil Mathe

5 Things I learned From Quitting Teaching by Andy Milne

Unexpected Detours by Ray Ostrowski