This is my second year contributing to this blog, and I truly enjoy reading every post. They’ve been such a valuable part of my journey—helping me grow, reflect, and evolve as an educator. Without a doubt, the thing that has elevated my teaching the most is watching other teachers in action. Nine years ago, I …
In my personal opinion, there can sometimes be a disconnect between the health education classroom and the community resources that students truly need. Health, in general, can get a bad rap—but I want health to be celebrated. I want students to be excited about it. That’s how “Health-a-Palooza” was formed. Also keep in mind that …
I hadn’t seen this young man since the day he left our school in 5th grade. I knew he was on my son’s wrestling team. He is a sophomore wrestling varsity. Luckily for me, he just happened to get wrestler of the week so I got to see his picture with his name under it …
Continue reading 5 Years Later: You Won’t Believe What My Student Said!
We’ve heard professionals at the pinnacles of their careers talking about it for years: the Process. LeBron James recently discussed this on his Mind the Game Podcast with Steve Nash. In this episode, he talked about how players who have had a career year and may have won an MVP or Championship STILL have so much more …
There is an adage that says experience is the best teacher that you can have when you live the experience. I would agree that nothing replaces that. However, to some extent, I also know that in every field, whether it is medicine, engineering, or in my case, education, returning to the basics is paramount. People …
"Believing you’re enough changes everything." We live in a glass bowl world. Every move, post, and thought is visible through social media, where comparisons are constant — either by others or by ourselves. We wonder: Is it good enough? Creative enough? Original enough? Sometimes, there’s instant gratification — likes, comments, affirmations. Other times, silence leaves …
Continue reading TOY Story: A Journey of Growth, Gratitude, and Belief
Managing student participation and classroom efficiency can be challenging. To address this, I introduced a team-based structure with defined roles in small teams during health instruction. This approach made class time more active, helped things run like clockwork, and got students talking, collaborating, and having fun while building their health skills. Setting It Up The …
After teaching a lesson, how often have we thought to ourselves, “My students said they loved the lesson, but they were just being nice”? Well, it's time to stop discounting the positive and bring mindfulness into our classroom by recognizing these common “thought traps!”. It’s not a secret that mental health is at the forefront …
Sometimes, it’s not a massive change that transforms your life — it’s a small shift in how you see yourself, your challenges, and your possibilities. Over time, I’ve learned that adjusting my mindset, even slightly, can open doors and help me to see pathways I did not think I had (Hello--- Imposter Syndrome) or that …
Continue reading No One Talks About These 5 Small Mindset Shifts (But They Change Everything)
Let’s be real—we all scroll. It’s baked into our routine. Coffee. Email. Group text. Twitter (not so much anymore). Bluesky (not what we hoped it'd be… still time though!). TikTok. Scroll, scroll, scroll. So… why not make one of those scrolls meaningful? That’s what the HPE Collective is. A space where Health and PE teachers …
Continue reading Scroll With Purpose: Why the HPE Collective Should Be One of Your Daily Stops
Whenever I tell someone what I do, they look at me like they just ate thebarf jelly bean in the BeanboozledJelly Belly collection. How could you…why would you… I could never…. I get it. Teaching 8th graders can be brutal. Not many would tout their early teensyears as a time they would ever want to …
Esports, or organized competitive video gaming with in- and out-of-game rules, have significantly grown in popularity in the last 10 years (Nothelfer et al., 2024). It is a common misconception that the first video game was created in 1972, but that was the year of the first esports tournament, held at Stanford University (Jin & …
Continue reading How Screen Time May Be Affecting Your Health as an Esports Player
Esports, or organized competitive video gaming (Jenny et al., 2017), have proven to be a global phenomenon that attracts millions of players and audiences. The esports industry is massive, with professional tournaments offering multi-million-dollar prize pools and streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube enabling influencers and talented gamers a full-time income (Ahn et al., 2020). …
If you are under the age of 45 years old, you have probably been there: hours spent glued to the screen, trying to “level up” in a favorite video game or competing for that top high score or ranking. But while you were focused on your gaming skills, there’s something that was likely ignored: your …
Continue reading Sit Up, Game On: How Gamer Posture Can Make or Break Your Health
In the rush of daily life, school drop-offs, work meetings, dinner prep, washing, and a never-ending to-do list, it's easy to let "playtime" fall to the bottom of the priority pile. But what if we told you that playing together as a family could be the most impactful thing you do for your family's health, …
Continue reading Press Pause and Play: The Family Habit That Changes Everything
In most multi-activity curricula, when asked “what are we doing today?” the all too familiar response is “games, or aquatics, or dance and so on”. These activities are therefore “the organising centre” of your physical education programme. These are the ‘things’ we plan our lesson around them, it is the skills and techniques of these …
Continue reading Making it Count: Organizing PE Around What Really Matters
Have you ever considered the cultural backgrounds of the students you teach? As an educator, I have come to realize that considering the cultural backgrounds of students is not just beneficial but essential in creating an inclusive and effective learning environment. My experiences teaching in International Schools have profoundly shaped my perspective on this matter. …
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Chinese Proverb A journey of discovery is rarely paved in a straight line. We have all been down that long, winding path before, pulling us towards the unknown. When Robert Frost wrote about “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” he was telling us …
Make It Stick is the best education book I have ever read. The reason I love this book so much is because it so intimately connects to skills-based health education and has changed my teaching strategies forever. Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and Mark McDaniel explain complex neuroscience in a digestible and novel way and I …
Continue reading Make it Stick in the Health Education Classroom
Preface: Although we write this blog from a Canadian perspective, we know that this topic is relevant within the American landscape as well. We recognize the complexities that currently exist advocating for and implementing inclusive sexual health education. Teacher Educator Perspective (Alexandra Stoddart) While it has many names, sexual health education (also known as sexuality …
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