The story starts when I arrive at school and is going to be a brief overview.  If it were truly the entire day, this would no longer be a microblog post but a full on chapter to an autobiography.  Our school is located in Colton, NY which is upstate; 32 miles from the bridge to Canada and in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains.  We have 376 students in our Pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade public school.  This is the second PK-12 public school I have taught PE and health at and I would love to share why I love and embrace this unique position!

After I park my Toyota Sienna I head inside, open up my office door which is located just outside of the gymnasium.  I pull up and project the PE plans for the day on my sacred google slide show titled “PE agendas” which consist of three levels: K-2, 3-5, and 6-12.  My coworker and I gathered equipment and set up our PE space for the day.  During the morning transition time I hustle upstairs to a shared classroom in which I teach four sections of health class at the middle and high school levels.  In my travels I give fist bumps to the elementary students, am overly enthusiastic with the 11th and 12th graders who typically look like they are still sleeping and tie a few shoes of our youngest students along the way.  

My health teaching space is located in a shared classroom.  Luckily, I have fabulous colleagues and administrators that have helped me transform the space into a functioning classroom with technology, inviting decor, and supplies to engage my students.  I pull up my HS Health and MS Health Agendas that I project for students as they come in. I fire up some tunes to welcome my students. Right now I am transitioning between the spotify stations: Instrumental Pop Songs and Taylor Swift Instrumental Acoustic Guitar Covers.  Both are highly recommended.  

After that the magic of my completely beautiful and extremely hectic day begins.  Here is what my schedule looks like every other day:

• Middle School Health
• PE 8
• High School PE
• Prep
• 2nd Grade PE
• Lunch
• High School Health
• Middle School Health
• PE 7
• High School PE

The opposite day is more of the same with more elementary PE classes mixed in.  I advocate for several planning days in the summer in order to stay current with best practices in all areas and to create top-notch lessons in both physical education and health.  I am asked every day; “How do you find the time to create such meaningful lessons for all of the classes you teach?”.  The answer is simple.  Teaching quality health, wellness and physical literacy is perhaps the single greatest way to ensure not only the immediate well-being of our children, but to ensure the future well-being of our communities.  In my fifteen years of teaching I have only taught in a K-12 building.  I guess you could say it is all I know, but I like to say that it is what I love!

Tips for K-12 Teachers:

• Organization is key
• Leave your space(s) tidy for a fresh start in the AM
• Don’t reinvent the wheel
• Embrace the chaos 

Thanks for reading.  If you made it this far, enjoy these Cup Stacking Challenges that I have successfully used at every level, and in every area I teach.

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 Shelby Hosmer, who teaches at Colton Pierrepont Central School and is 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 blog post with the following:

Middle School PE: Unleashing the Fun and Building Champions by Austin Olson

A More Engaging Pre-Test by Shelby Hosmer

Advice to a New Teacher by Renee Reedhardt

Have you read the latest Book of the Month recommendation?