Hey Reader!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and are feeling excited about another week of teaching, testing, and (hopefully) laughing.

This week, I did something that I haven't done in a minute: I published an episode of The #PhysEd Show podcast!

My goal is to get back into publishing monthly episodes of my podcast this year. To kick things off, I decided to share some of the classroom management systems that I've created, implemented, and iterated in my teaching.

Let's dive in.

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⚛️ THIS WEEK'S ATOMIC ESSAY

Pedagogical Problems: How I’m Eliminating Pain Points In My Teaching.

When it comes to teacher resilience, I’m a big believer in the power of curiosity as a powerful protective factor.

I teach P-2 physical education in a loud split gym with a revolving door schedule broken down into 30-minute blocks.

When I first got to my school, the grind of it all was intense: little problems throughout the day were adding up quickly and draining my ability to enjoy teaching. By the end of the day, I was exhausted, moody, and not a big fan of children.

This is where curiosity saved me: rather than complain and vent about all of the factors that were preventing me from feeling my best while teaching, I decided to get curious about them.

When you start treating the pain points in your teaching as pedagogical problems, you develop a mindset that allows you to see each challenge as being one idea away from being solved.

Here are some examples from my own teaching:

⚠️ Problem: My revolving door schedule wasn’t allowing me to regulate between classes, meaning that the unwanted emotions from one class were carrying over into my next one.

✅ Solution: Treasure Time (i.e. 5-7 minutes of unstructured free play at the start of each lesson during I adopt a “lifeguard” mode) has given me the breathing room I needed to regroup and reset.

⚠️ Problem: Students were constantly leaving water bottle, sweaters, and more lying around the gym, leading to a lot of frustration at the end of the day when I was cleaning up.

✅ Solution: The introduction of the Hydration Station and Bunny Bin routines has completely eliminated spills, forgotten sweaters, and messy benches.

⚠️ Problem: Students would take forever to out equipment away and get in their squad lines at the end of Treasure Time, wasting valuable class time and making it hard to justify the free time at the start of lessons.

✅ Solution: The Clean Up Cup (i.e. a timed challenge in which classes get to compete to see who can clean up the fastest) has reduced clean up time from 4-5 minutes to under 30s.

Whatever pain point you are facing in your teaching, there’s a good chance that you are one idea away from eliminating it for good. All it takes to get started is reflection and curiosity, and a willingness to play with new ideas until they work for you.

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🎙️ THE #PHYSED SHOW PODCAST

In this episode, I share the classroom management systems that transformed my teaching from overwhelming to energizing.

From the Full Value Contract to Treasure Time, I'll show you how treating daily frustrations as pedagogical problems helped me reduce friction, save energy, and rediscover joy in my PE classes.

Whether you're managing 30-minute blocks or teaching hundreds of students a week, these practical systems will help you move from survival mode to thriving.

Don't forget to subscribe to The #PhysEd Show Podcast on Apple Podcasts, or Spotify!

Listen To The Episode

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🎓 UPDATES FROM #PHYSEDU

Here are some of the posts that I've shared with the #PhysEdU community recently:

Skateboarding in Physical Education [Snaps]

My grade two students are currently learning about ride skills (i.e. object locomotor skills), balance concepts, and skateboarding in PE class!

This is my first year teaching skateboarding as a dedicated unit in my PE program, and I'm having a blast! Last week, I shared a few snaps and details about how I'm bringing these lessons to life.

👉 If you’re interested in making skateboarding a part of your PE program, let's connect on #PhysEdU!

A Curriculum That Lives Beyond the Gym: Why vision and place belong together in physical education [Post]

I wrote a post last week about the role of vision in creating a PE program that is as meaningful and impactful as possible.

Personally, I believe that the vision of one's program can only truly come to life when it is grounded in the place where you teach. When you can achieve this, every lesson becomes linked to your students reality.

👉 If you're interested in learning more about how developing a sense of place is baked into my program's DNA, check this post out!

Cast of Characters [Idea]

#PhysEdU Legend/2024 SHAPE America Eastern District Elementary PE Teacher of the Year/AI Guru/all-around cool guy Dan Stover shared a post this week on how he is using AI to generate visuals for his students that feature a diverse set of characters that represent the population of his school.

These characters have found their way into the plentitude of amazing visuals that Dan creates for his teaching, all of which are intentionally designed to support student learning in his lessons.

👉 If you’re interested in seeing how AI can help you create learning visuals for your PE program that are truly effective, check this post out!

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#PhysEdU memberships cost as little as $10/year and every tier packs a punch in terms of value. I'm excited to be a part of something that helps PE teachers feel empowered in their teaching, helps them cultivate motivation, and encourages them to prioritize their health and well-being.

Join #PhysEdU Today! Be part of a PE community that wants to help you grow!

Join Us On Campus!

That's it for this week! I hope you found some value in this edition of The #PhysEd Newsletter! If you did, feel free to invite others to sign up for it!

Happy Teaching!

Joey

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Joey Feith
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🥳 You're awesome! Thanks for reading all the way through! Reply with any questions you may have. ​Edit your profile or unsubscribe. Want to keep learning together? → Join #PhysEdU - find a tier that works best for you. → Book A Workshop - learn more about my speaking services. Send mail to 600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246