Taking on new leadership roles each year, such as stepping into the 5th grade girls' basketball coach position

Contributing to the positive school culture and promotion of physical activity by communicating with parents about such activities.

Ongoing discussions with coworkers about how to improve my teaching skills, including ideas regarding behavior management and classroom RRE strategies.

This year, I was asked to help out with CICO with a few students. I enjoy doing this because it helps build more of a relationship with those certain students and creates a more trusting and collaborative environment within the school and when they come to PE.

Speaking highly of students when not around

There was a situation of some drama between a few of the girls that were in first grade last year that has continued a little bit into this year as well. One of the girls has a big influence on the others and there is particularly a girl who I have seen have an internal debate on whether or not she is going to follow the influence of this other girl or not. I would say she's done a great job choosing to stay out of it for the most part this year, after many talks with her and her parents about decision-making and whether or not to go along with peer pressure if it's something that you're not supposed to be doing.

Parents are engaged as learning partners in PE throughout the school year. This includes having them send in photos of their kids being active at home and outside of school - including by themselves (promotes self motivation for physical activity), working closely with the PTO to share the gym space for various during or after school events and activities and communicating about those.

Parents are extremely involved in Field Day and Olympics Day in PE.

New this year - we are planning on hosting a "Carnival Day" that incorporates the AHA and teaching students about heart healthy habits. Along with the kickoff and carnival, we are planning on livestreaming the days' activities to share with parents so they can see their kid's participation and all that they're learning from these events.

A student in 3rd grade this week (12/8) had an injury, he said an Ipad accidentally dropped on his head, ear, and chest and went to the nurse yesterday for it. With a visible scratch on his head from it and him answering my question with saying that his head hurts at a level of 8/10 pain, I had to make the hard decision to have him check with the nurse instead of participating. He really wanted to participate, but he also mentioned having a headache since yesterday with that level of pain. This was a hard decision seeing that he really wanted to play, but it was having his best interest in mind, especially with an increase in head injuries/concussions.

This year compared to last year, I have been trying to talk a little bit more in staff meetings when I have ideas to contribute.

I was planning on going to IAHPERD this year, but some personal life events had me just a little bit busy, but this next year I am for sure going if possible, and also maybe trying to go to the international convention in the spring.

During our striking unit, students engaged in a self check assessment which required them to reflect on their progress with striking skills and we had a discussion on strength and weaknesses in this content area.

Another example of this is during one of the lessons completing our striking stations, a Kindergarten student was asking another student for help on how to properly serve the blown up ball towards the hero friends on the wall. This shows that students, even at a young age, are able to identify their weaknesses and ask someone else for help, and to ask a peer instead of the teacher.

In this video, you can clearly see that this student is utilizing the critical elements of striking that they learned throughout the unit. At this age, the main goal for these lessons is to correct when students aren't stepping in opposition and getting them lots of repetitions. This lesson with stations was successful at doing so.

Friday SPLAM meetings

Teacher/parent consultations

Receiving feedback from colleagues (Andy)

Meeting with horizontal and vertical teams

Wednesday staff meetings

Something I plan to do in the spring semester is have the 5th grade students choose one component of fitness to work on and set a SMART goal that they will create to track it. A few weeks later, we'll revisit it and see how they've improved.

During meet the teacher, P/T nights, and curriculum night, I love to have my Ipad out with a screen showing some of the things we do in PE and also a page about myself. This allows parents to feel connected, show them what their kid is doing in our class, and gives them an opportunity to ask questions about it.

I'm planning on having Jody's son Ethan, who travels internationally on a Volleyball team to come in and speak about his experiences on the team and how he got there. His story will for sure spark some interest and passion with my students. Having such a local person who is related to one of our staff members also just drives more of a huge sense of connection between students, staff, and community.