Hey Reader!

I hope you had a great week and are either a) feeling ready for this snowpocalypse or b) completely unaffected by it!

I've got so much going on in my teaching that I'm excited about:

My primary/grade one students are working on their control skills (i.e. manipulative skills) and making good progress with their throwing and catching!
My grade two students are CRUSHING IT in their skateboarding unit!
My grade four students are getting more and more familiar with animal tracking (which the snow we've had has made even more fun).

Planning lessons that get me pumped for teaching always leaves me feeling energized and grateful to get to be a PE teacher. That said, planning isn't everyone's cup of tea. For some, it can feel like a frustrating exercise that they prefer to avoid altogether.

I think a lot of that frustration comes from where we start. There's one shift that makes planning feel less overwhelming and more empowering... and it all comes down to the first question you ask yourself.

Let's dive in!

⚛️ THIS WEEK'S ATOMIC ESSAY

Stop Planning Activities. Start Planning Learning.

You’re sitting down to plan your next unit. You decide badminton is up, so you ask yourself: what are we doing?

Here’s the thing. That question doesn’t narrow your focus the way you think it does.

When you start with “what are we doing,” you end up with this massive list of possibilities. Are you teaching badminton skills? Net and wall tactics? The rules of badminton? How to win? Singles or doubles? Suddenly you’ve gone from being overwhelmed about what activity to teach to being overwhelmed about how to approach that activity.

You’ve traded one kind of stuck for another.

This is what I call activity-first thinking. It starts broad and stays broad. “We’re doing badminton” doesn’t give you a clear starting point. You’re left grabbing at whatever game or activity you saved on Reels, but without any real sense of direction or empowerment as an educator.

There’s a better way to plan, and it starts with a different question.

Instead of asking “what are we doing,” ask “what are they learning?”

This is learning-first thinking, and it changes everything.

When you start with the learning, you get a narrower focus right from the start. That focus becomes your razor. It cuts through all the noise and tells you exactly what to design.

If students are learning how to perform clears, you’ll play a version of badminton that scores points for landing shots deep. If they’re learning to create space in net and wall games, you might start with catch-and-toss (like Lobster Ball) to remove the skill barrier so you can focus on tactical decisions. If they’re learning serve placement, you’ll design games where strategic serving creates immediate advantage.

The learning target does the heavy lifting for you. It constrains your choices, and those constraints actually make you more creative. They give you a starting point that’s small enough to feel manageable.

I see this all the time in on social media. A teacher will post something like: “I’m doing volleyball with my 4th graders. What are your best games?”

My answer is always the same: "What are they learning?"

I’m not trying to be difficult when I ask that, or act like some hoity-toity snark. I’m trying to help you get unstuck. Because without knowing the learning, I could recommend twenty different games and none of them would be the right fit for what you’re trying to accomplish.

But when you tell me “they’re learning to read the ball and move to open space,” now I can point you toward specific activities and/or progressions that actually match your goal.

Learning-first thinking makes planning easier for you. It makes goal setting clearer for your students. And it makes progress visible for everyone.

Next time you sit down to plan, flip the question. Don’t ask what they’re doing. Ask what they’re learning and let your expertise as a physical educator blossom.

Enjoyed this week's Atomic Essay? You can find all of the essays that I've written in the Reading space on #PhysEdU!

#️⃣ THIS WEEK ON #PHYSEDU

Learning-first thinking is easier when you're not alone..

This week on #PhysEdU, our community came together for the first #PEChat of the year! The topic was "Classroom Management: What's Working. What's Not."

It was so great to be able to have honest, vulnerable conversations with teachers I trust on a community platform designed exclusively for PE teachers.

Beyond #PEChat, we had an awesome #PhysEdU PubPD session during which we dove deep into free play as a tool for intention social-emotional learning and AI tools that are saving us time and energy as teachers. We also talked about how to be the teacher you want to be while also honouring who you are as a parent, spouse, and human being.

The Games space got three new additions this week, including a fun instant activity called "1,2,3, Math!" that Derrick Biehl shared on the Snaps space (#PhysEdU's version of Instagram for PE teachers).

If you're tired of feeling stuck in your planning, or tired of feeling alone in your teaching, #PhysEdU might just be the platform you've been waiting for!

Join #PhysEdU Today!

Community Tier is $10/year. Access to all campus spaces, monthly #PEChat discussions, PubPD sessions, monthly freebies, and a community that actually helps you grow.

Plus Tier is $49/year. Everything in Community, plus access to the Games space (which includes downloadable, sub-friendly PDF versions of each game), assessment tools, and Library space (which is full of Atomic Essays, exclusive posts, and more!)

Pro Tier is $99/year. Everything in Plus, plus exclusive workshops, the Visuals Space (where you can access and download my entire Premium Visuals library), and our Mentor Circle where we work through challenges like this together.

Join #PhysEdU and Get Unstuck Today!

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